Marvel, I hate to tell you this, but one of your Young Avengers is now officially older than ScarJo was in ‘The Avengers’

It probably says a lot about the wayward priorities of Marvel‘s Multiverse Saga that we’ve gotten official confirmation that Robert Downey Jr. is coming back to the MCU — in the very next Avengers movie after the one that killed him off — before we’ve gotten an actual confirmation that a Young Avengers project is happening. You know, the team of next-gen heroes who were supposed to lead the franchise into the future?

Marvel has been dragging its feet something chronic in bringing Earth’s Mightiest Post-Adolescent Avengers to life, despite the fans having been hyped for it ever since Cassie Lang was aged up in 2019’s Endgame. The past five years have oh-so-slowly brought more and more of the popular comic book group into the MCU, and things certainly feel like they’re heating up… And yet we’ve just had another year go by without any whiff of a Young Avengers announcement.

This December marks a mind-altering development, however, which should really serve as Marvel’s final warning to get a move on: one of its Young Avengers is now officially older than one of its actual Avengers.

Hailee Steinfeld is older than Scarlett Johansson was when she starred in The Avengers

Happy birthday, Hailee Steinfeld! The multi-talented actress and singer turned 28 years old on Dec. 11, 2024 — a fact that may make many feel old, considering she broke into the business at the age of 13 in True Grit, a movie that doesn’t feel 15 years old. In the context of her MCU career, though, Steinfeld rapidly approaching 30 is even more existentially alarming, serving as a damning indictment on how long Marvel’s assembly of the Young Avengers is taking.

The thing is, Steinfeld is now older than Scarlett Johansson was when The Avengers came out. The Black Widow star was actually 26 when she shot the 2012 blockbuster that changed the face of film franchises forever, but she had turned 27 by the time it released. So, whatever happens now, no matter how quickly Marvel makes its Young Avengers project a reality, at least one of its cast — perhaps its biggest star, too — will actually be more advanced in age than a founding Avenger was last decade.

It’s still unclear who will be on the team and who won’t, as numerous potential recruits have popped up since 2021 and been swiftly forgotten (admit it, who has thought about Hulk’s son Skarr since 2022?). However, The Marvels told us that Iman Vellani’s Kamala Khan and Steinfeld’s Kate Bishop are core members. And a recent Disneyworld ride suggested Ironheart (Dominique Thorne) and Cassie Lang (Kathryn Newton) are in the mix, too. Add in Joe Locke’s Wiccan and then we’re talking.

Honestly, we’re singling Steinfeld out here, but Newton and Thorne also turned 27 this year so the majority of the Young Avengers may well be in their 30s by the time the world gets around to seeing them suit up. At this point, we’ll need a Young Young Avengers to balance out the Old Young Avengers. Never mind Downey’s Old Old Avengers that threaten to reassemble.