With Marvel Studios reportedly seeing Avengers 4 as their last big superhero team-up movie for a while, and Josh Brolin explaining “to put this many successful actors together is such a pain in the ass,” what could they be building to next? Well, courtesy of That Hashtag Show, we now have a hint at what’s in the pipeline for Phase 4.
The outlet’s reporting that the studio’s currently mulling over a Dark Avengers script, which has been completed and is in consideration for the next Phase of the MCU. For those unfamiliar with the property, back in 2010, Marvel Comics put out a series called Dark Reign. Writer Brian Michael Bendis and artist Mike Deodato, working from the previous Secret Invasion storyline about a Skrull invasion that saw the Avengers disbanded, showed us a new team run by Spider-Man’s nemesis and alter-ego of the Green Goblin, Norman Osborn.
The team consisted of skewed takes on familiar heroes. So, we saw a version of Venom where the symbiote had bonded with ex-Scorpion Mac Gargan, Wolverine’s rebellious son Dakan pretending to be his dad and Osborn himself as the team’s Iron Man, here called Iron Patriot.
The idea of a ‘fake’ Avengers primarily consisting of supervillains in disguise is an interesting one, and really makes me wonder which villains could make the roster. Narrowing it down to those who survived their movies in the MCU and could still present a threat, I’m thinking we may get the return of Yellowjacket from Ant-Man, Abomination from The Incredible Hulk, Batroc from Captain America: The Winter Soldier, The Vulture from Spider-Man: Homecoming and, uh, Ivan Vanko (and his cockatoo) from Iron Man 2. Granted, those are some deep dives and a few of these guys aren’t exactly the most memorable villains, but I think there’s enough there to scrape together some kind of super team.
And while the MCU doesn’t currently have a Norman Osborn, it’s possible we could see him introduced in Spider-Man: Far From Home. Or that some other nefarious character could fill the role. Regardless, this is a very intriguing idea for a film and if you have any villains in mind that you’d like to see on the Dark Avengers team, let us know in the comments section down below.
