Avengers: Doomsday has a massive cast, but there are still many characters and actors notable by their absence. Among them are the Young Avengers, or if past rumours are to be believed, the "Champions."
For most fans, the upcoming Avengers movies are an ideal place to establish this new superhero team.
In terms of who will assemble as the MCU's Champions, Wiccan (Joe Locke), Speed (Ruaridh Mollica), Ms. Marvel (Iman Vellani), Hawkeye (Hailee Steinfeld), America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez), Cassie Lang (Kathryn Newton), and Ironheart (Dominique Thorne) are all likely contenders.
Concept art for the next Avengers movies showed some of those heroes alongside Star-Lord and Wong. It's not clear whether that's still the plan for the young heroes, as the Russos previously said the artwork wasn't representative of what we'll see in the Doomsday and Secret Wars.
Now, we have an update from The Cosmic Circus's Alex Perez, who writes, "The Young Avengers' (which features Kate Bishop as co-captain) role at the end of the Multverse is equivalent to the role of Ant-Man in Endgame. (And y'all need to stop using that leaked concept art as an idea of what’s going to happen, cause it’s very different this time around)."
If we unpack these comments, it leads to some very intriguing possibilities. In Avengers: Endgame, Ant-Man being stranded in the Quantum Realm meant he was ultimately able to find his fellow heroes and suggest the idea of undoing Thanos' actions by travelling back through time.
It's previously been reported that, like the Secret Wars comic, Doctor Doom creates Battleworld and makes everyone forget their past lives. However, on the page, a small handful of Earth-616's heroes survived on a life raft and eventually arrived in Doom's new reality, looking to set things right.
With that in mind, perhaps something happens to make it so the Young Avengers are the only heroes who remember their past lives. If so, they'll likely take centre stage in Avengers: Secret Wars, where they can try to remind their mentors of how the world should be.
We'll see, but it feels like time is running out to do right by this "young" superhero team, even if the plan is to put the spotlight on them in the next Saga of MCU storytelling.
Avengers: Doomsday officially stars Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Anthony Mackie, Winston Duke, Tom Hiddleston, Sebastian Stan, Letitia Wright, Paul Rudd, and Robert Downey Jr. Wyatt Russell, Simu Liu, Tenoch Huerta Mejia, Mabel Cadena, Florence Pugh, Danny Ramirez, David Harbour, Hannah John-Kamen, Lewis Pullman, and India Rose Hemsworth all make their Avengers franchise debuts.
The Fantastic Four: First Steps leads Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, and Joseph Quinn join them, as do X-Men franchise stars Kelsey Grammer, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Alan Cumming, Rebecca Romijn, James Marsden, with Deadpool & Wolverine star Channing Tatum. The trades have pointed to Ryan Reynolds and Hayley Atwell also appearing in Avengers: Doomsday.
The Russo Brothers direct Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars from a screenplay by Stephen McFeely, with whom they previously collaborated on the Avengers and Captain America franchises. Loki and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness's Michael Waldron has also been enlisted to help.
Avengers: Doomsday is set to be released on December 18, with Avengers: Secret Wars scheduled to arrive on December 17, 2027.