The Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Phase Four only kicked off six months ago with WandaVision, but it’s already becoming increasingly clear that we’re getting the Young Avengers sooner rather than later. Kevin Feige teased years ago that the seeds would begin to be sown, and we’ve already met a handful of the roster on Disney Plus, with more on their way to the big screen.
Elizabeth Olsen’s twins Tommy and Billy are poised to return in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, with Xochitl Gomez long since confirmed to debut as America Chavez in the Sorcerer Supreme’s sequel. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier introduced Elijah Bradley, who goes by the alias Patriot, and Jack Veal’s Kid Loki is another member of the team to have recently made the jump into live-action via Tom Hiddleston’s mischievous solo series.
On top of that, established star Kathryn Newton is replacing Avengers: Endgame‘s Emma Fuhrmann as Cassie Lang in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Hailee Steinfeld’s Kate Bishop is poised to assume the mantle of the franchise’s resident expert archer from Jeremy Renner’s Clint Barton in Hawkeye, Dominique Thorne will play another Young Avengers alum in streaming exclusive Ironheart, and there’s every chance Iman Vellani’s Ms. Marvel will also be involved in some capacity.
That’s nine possible contenders in the mix already coming to the MCU before the middle of 2023, and in a new interview onscreen matriarch Elizabeth Olsen addressed the idea of the Young Avengers entering the fray.
“I have no idea. I don’t even know if, actually, if you even ask Kevin Feige that, I think he’ll honestly say he doesn’t know. They really plan phases at a time, and then after those complete, they move onto the next phase. It seems like from my perspective that that could be a possibility, but I don’t think they have a real plan for that yet. But they keep all their options open.”
Clearly, the franchise’s most powerful superhero isn’t being kept in the loop, but it’s hardly a coincidence that so many Young Avengers are being folded into the mythology at roughly the same time, and it shouldn’t be too long until concrete plans begin to take shape.
