The MCU’s Secret Wars movie has already established its best story idea in Phase 4: telling the story from the perspective of the Young Avengers.
The MCU will be bringing Avengers: Secret Wars to theatres in 2025, with its best potential story including the Young Avengers that Phase 4 has been setting up. The Young Avengers setup began loosely in WandaVision when Wanda’s children were introduced to the MCU. However, with Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness seemingly transitioning Wiccan and Speed out of the MCU, the other Young Avengers introduced in Phase 4 will have to carry the torch going forward.
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Marvel Studios made huge announcements at San Diego Comic-Con 2022, fleshing out the next three years of their storytelling slate by giving fans their first look at Phase 5 and Phase 6, including villains, story, and characters. In doing so, Kevin Feige and his team established just where the MCU is heading after Phase 4. With Phases 1 through 3 being labeled the Infinity Saga and closing off with the Avengers’ battle against Thanos, Phases 4-6 will be titled the Multiverse Saga, with Kang the Conqueror as the MCU’s next Thanos-level threat.
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Naturally, the Multiverse Saga was revealed to finish in 2025 before going into Phase 7 and whatever Marvel Studios inevitably have planned. However, rather than the typical tactic of releasing an Avengers movie each Phase before leading into a climactic event like Avengers: Endgame, the MCU is instead releasing not one, but two Avengers movies in 2025. This led many to wonder where the Young Avengers that have been set up throughout Phase 4 will factor into Marvel Studios’ plans.
The Young Avengers Were Left Out Of Marvel’s Slate Despite Phase 4 Setup
Unfortunately, though, no news was divulged by Kevin Feige and co. at SDCC 2022 regarding how the Young Avengers will factor into Phases 5 or 6 or indeed if they will at all. This came as a surprise, given the establishment of many different Young Avengers characters throughout Phase 4. As mentioned, Wiccan and Speed were both introduced in WandaVision and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Only a few months after that in March 2021, the next Young Avenger was introduced to the MCU in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier: Patriot, also known as Eli Bradley. Summer 2021 then saw the release of Loki, in which another potential member of the Young Avengers was introduced through Kid Loki. However, the most prominent of the MCU’s Young Avengers members thus far was then introduced in Hawkeye through Kate Bishop, played by Hailee Steinfeld. This saw the beginning of the Young Avengers foundations being laid more solidly as opposed to bit-part cameos, with America Chavez’s inclusion in Doctor Strange 2 being more akin to Kate Bishop’s. Finally, the most recent potential member introduced was Kamala Khan in Ms. Marvel.
Despite all of this setup, the Young Avengers weren’t mentioned at all in SDCC 2022’s reveals, at least in their team form or when the team may first appear together on screen in the MCU. While Ms. Marvel, a potential Young Avengers team member, was mentioned to appear in The Marvels, the rest of the characters were largely left out of Marvel Studios’ panel. While there are still many unconfirmed Phase 6 release dates that Marvel will likely be assigning projects to in the next few months, maybe even at D23 in September, the Young Avengers’ absence from SDCC 2022 was certainly evident.
Avengers: Kang Dynasty Ends With The New Avengers Stranded On Battleworld
However, this could very well be intentional from Marvel Studios, with Kevin Feige and his many teams working towards the two Avengers movies in 2025. These movies could be the culmination of all the Young Avengers setup of Phases 4 & 5. This could happen by utilizing the first of the two movies in 2025, Avengers 5/Avengers: The Kang Dynasty. As established in Loki and continued in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Kang the Conqueror will be the main villain of the Multiverse Saga that the heroes of the MCU will need to confront in Avengers: The Kang Dynasty. As Avengers: Secret Wars releases only six months after Avengers 5, the setup for the Young Avengers starring in the former could begin with the ending of the latter.
As Kang will be the clear villain of Avengers 5, the New Avengers will likely form to stop him. This team will surely consist of members such as Captain America, Doctor Strange, Captain Marvel, Ant-Man, Wasp, Shang-Chi, Hulk/She-Hulk, and likely many more established over Phases 5 & 6 including the Fantastic Four. However, due to the close release dates of both Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and Avengers: Secret Wars, the former could end on a huge cliffhanger and leave the New Avengers stranded on Battleworld. Battleworld is the main setting of Secret Wars in the comics and is created due to the collision of many multiverses. While enemies called the Beyonders are included in the comics Secret Wars, these could easily be replaced by many variants of Kang the Conqueror, given the latter’s main villainous presence in the Multiverse Saga.
The benefits of having the New Avengers stranded on Battleworld are threefold. Firstly, the cliffhanger element of the plot point will greatly build anticipation for Avengers: Secret Wars only six months later, echoing the plot twist of Thanos’ snap that ended Avengers: Infinity War. Secondly, the move would establish Kang as a massive threat, having him ‘win’ against the New Avengers that formed to stop him again mirroring Thanos’ victory in Infinity War. Thirdly, and most importantly, in this case, this could lay the groundwork for the Young Avengers MCU formation going into Avengers: Secret Wars.
Avengers: Secret Wars Has The Young Avengers Saving The Older Team
Many of the Young Avengers characters introduced in the MCU thus far have close connections to members of the older team, such as Kate Bishop with Hawkeye, Ms. Marvel with Captain Marvel, Eli Bradley with Captain America, and America Chavez with Doctor Strange. In doing this, it is likely that the younger members’ absence in Avengers: The Kang Dynasty will be explained by their mentors wanting to keep them out of harm’s way. However, if The Kang Dynasty does indeed end with the New Avengers team being stranded on Battleworld for Avengers: Secret Wars, the Young Avengers would then have no choice but to form in order to save their friends and mentors from their multiversal imprisonment.