Marvel seemingly having no interest in bringing back a key player from a $150m Disney Plus series with a big legacy is another blow for the MCU

How old are the Young Avengers going to be before they finally assemble in the MCU? That’s the question that’s been keeping Marvel fans up at night ever since the franchise started introducing the next generation of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes across Phase Four. Surely, with Phase Five now a year-deep and prospective team leader Hailee Steinfeld (Kate Bishop) about to turn 27 in real-life — two years older than Scarlett Johansson was when she first played Black Widow — it’s gotta be soon, right?

Well, Marvel remains mum on the topic, but the latest rumor indicates that a Young Avengers roster has been formed behind the scenes, ready for their grand arrival in some future (hopefully not far-future) project.

According to scooper CanWeGetToast, Kate, Ms. Marvel, America Chavez, Wiccan, Cassie Lang, and Ironheart are locked in, with Wiccan’s twin Speed likely to be featured in there somewhere. Unfortunately, one member of the team who’s already in the MCU apparently doesn’t have a good chance of returning.

Namely, Eli Bradley, who goes by the superhero name Patriot in the comics. Just as in the source material, Eli was introduced as the grandson of super-soldier Isaiah Bradley in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, as played by Elijah Richardson. Despite having done half the work already, it’s claimed that “Marvel doesn’t seem to have any interest in pursuing anything Elijah Bradley related, unfortunately.”

Given that the entire point of the Bradleys’ story is that Isaiah’s legacy as the first “Captain America” has been stricken from the history books, Marvel writing out his grandson from the Young Avengers team wouldn’t be a great look if it comes to pass. It would also be a pretty mystifying decision, seeing as The Falcon and the Winter Soldier‘s story will continue in Captain America: Brave New World anyway, so it’s not like the studio is embarrassed by the Disney Plus show.

Eli could well prove to be a big player in the MCU’s Young Avengers after all (and certainly deserves to be) but it looks like he might be in danger of following Harry Styles’ Eros yet another once-promising Multiverse Saga lost in the ether.