This article contains major spoilers for The Marvels.
The Marvels was a pretty good movie in and of itself (for some, at least), but the ending really knocked it out of the park when it comes to setting up the future of the MCU. If you’re a victim of the so-called Marvel fatigue, you’re probably not very interested, but if you’re still enjoying the ride, you’re bound to be as excited as we are about this new development. Spoilers coming in 3, 2, 1…
Yes, the time has finally come. We are getting the Young Avengers in the MCU! Or the Champions. Basically a combination of both. For all of us who have waited, patiently, painfully, for this moment, let us take a moment to really let it sink in that, soon enough, the new generation of heroes is finally going to come together to kick some ass.
What happens at the end of The Marvels?
In case you haven’t seen The Marvels yet, the film concludes with a major step forward in Kamala Khan’s character arc in the MCU. She wants to continue to be a super-hero like her idol Captain Marvel and decides to create her own team (instead of constantly trying to get accepted into the Avengers). Her first recruit: Kate Bishop, Hawkeye/Clint Barton’s protegé from the 2021 Disney Plus series of the same name.
Ms. Marvel approaches her fellow “kid superhero,” ominously sitting in the dark in her apartment, a visual reminiscent of the times when it was Nick Fury gathering up the Avengers, and informs her that she’s been reading up on her and would like to make her an offer she can’t refuse (wait — wrong movie, but you know what I mean). While Kate informs her that she’s 23 years old and not exactly a kid, she still seems up for hearing what this stranger in her living room has to say, effectively rolling out the carpet for the big entrance of Marvel’s very first teen superhero team.
What does Kamala Khan’s and Kate Bishop’s meeting mean for the MCU’s future?
As much as Marvel will likely never be able to reproduce the popularity of the original six Avengers, in order for the MCU to stay alive, it has to move on to a newer generation. The same, inevitable path that the comics had to tread. Thankfully for them, these new Avengers have become almost as cherished by the fandom as their predecessors, managing to generate a good dose of hype, even through the disappointing misfires plaguing the cinematic universe in recent times.
Kamala and Kate are just the beginning. The bangle-wearing super-teen references Ant-Man’s daughter, Cassie Lang, whom we saw take to the battlefield in Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania, and who is a big part of the Young Avengers in the comics as the superhero known as Stature or Stinger. But, she’s not the only other team member to break into the MCU.
The Scarlet Witch’s twin sons Billy and Tommy, who were featured in WandaVision and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, are also likely to join the team, alongside America Chavez (also introduced in MoM), and Eli Bradley (Isaiah’s grandson in The Falcon and The Winter Soldier). Other possible members, borrowed from the team in the comics known as the Champions, are Riri Williams aka Ironheart (whom we met in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and will meet again in her standalone Disney Plus series) and Hulk’s son Skaar (from She-Hulk: Attorney at Law).
Spider-Man was also part of the Champions in the comics, but while he’s supposedly younger than Kate Bishop in the movies, Tom Holland might not want to be as heavily involved in this new chapter of the MCU after being in six films, with a seventh on the way. Sadly, there has been no mention yet of Teddy Altman/Hulkling — a founding member of the Young Avengers and Billy’s boyfriend — or Nathaniel Richards — who also happens to be a Kang variant — in the MCU.
The dream would be for Marvel to announce a TV show (we’ll also accept a movie) centered only on these young heroes, but we don’t see that happening until Phase Six at the earliest. We know this last phase of the Multiverse Saga will conclude with a couple of Avengers movies, but the only other two projects to be announced so far are Ironheart and the Fantastic Four reboot, which leaves plenty of space for the Young Avengers/Champions. This way we would be familiar with them and their stories before they inevitably show up to help the veterans take down Kang in the culmination of the current overarching plot. A once-distant dream, the arrival of the Young Avengers to the MCU has never felt so real.