The prospect of a new Avengers movie (referred to as Avengers 5) always made sense, even without Robert Downey, Jr. and Chris Evans, the two original core cast members whose time with the franchise appears to be up.
A new group of Avengers, made up of current and rising superheroes, made all the sense in the world. No matter if you called them the Young Avengers or not. But a new comment from Marvel Studios head honcho Kevin Feige has people wondering whether our collective assumptions were wrong.
In Assembled: The Making of Eternals (which you can watch here on Disney Plus; skip to around the 6-minute mark,) Feige said: "Marvel Studios and the Marvel Cinematic Universe is now past their tenth anniversary and with the release of the final Avengers movie, we've finally completed a 22-movie Infinity Saga."
And it's those four words, "the final Avengers movie," tucked into the middle of that sentence, that raise eyebrows. And while a literal reading of that quote could send you thinking things were all over for the Avengers brand (retiring like Hawkeye tried to?), we're not so sure. Especially with all of the existing MCU heroes still in play.
Analysis: Is Kevin Feige serious?
Marvel Studios is just like Apple: it hates to tell you more than it thinks you need to know. Sure, there could be an Avengers 5 or Young Avengers movie (and odds say there will be), and Feige didn't need to phrase it the way he did.
If Feige had said "with the release of Avengers: Endgame, we've finally completed a 22-movie Infinity Saga," and the same facts would have been conveyed. Instead, he chose to say something that would send fans asking questions.
It's hard to believe that we won't see an upcoming Marvel movie that doesn't have some Avengers (hell, Falcon is now Captain America, and seems to be in a leadership position) in it. That seems too likely, because it's too marketable for Marvel Studios to skip.
So, Feige's quote either points to a rebranding of the Avengers, or him just playing a bit too coy.
A new Avengers movie requires more assembling
This is just like the path to the original Avengers. We had five movies (two Iron Mans, a Thor, a Captain America and a Hulk movie that goes kind of ignored) to build up to the new team.
Currently, a new Avengers crew would likely have those who seem ready to enlist. And by our list, those would likely be Captain America Sam Wilson, Bucky Barnes, Kate Bishop, Shang-Chi, Hulk and Thor. Even those last two seem less likely, but we're about to get a whole MCU-shaking event in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
Once that movie's played out, though, there's a lot more to be done. We need to see if we get a new Black Panther in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, and other new Marvel shows and movies will show how much She-Hulk and Moon Knight and others are ready to be team players.
So, maybe in 2023, we'll have a better idea of who exactly would be on a new Avengers team.
Want something completely different this weekend? We've got the WWE Elimination Chamber 2022 live stream details. In other entertainment news, we just found out how long we have to wait to go back to the Upside-Down, as Netflix revealed the Stranger Things season 4 release dates. Yes, you read that right: it's being broken into two parts.
