Potential spoilers for Avengers: Doomsday follow.
Avengers: Doomsday is set to rival Endgame as the biggest live-action superhero movie in history, and next year’s sequel Secret Wars, will probably be even bigger. Despite the title, Doomsday is confirmed to feature several other teams of heroes in addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s new and old Avengers, including the X-Men, Fantastic Four, and other groups like Black Panther (Letitia Wright) and the Wakandans, and the Time Variance Authority. But given how the Multiverse Saga has played out so far, there’s one more team that really should be part of the duology.
The MCU has introduced and developed many of Marvel Comics’ popular teenage and young adult crime fighters throughout the Multiverse Saga. This initially led fans to expect the franchise to adapt one of its two famous teams of young heroes, the Young Avengers or the Champions (or, perhaps more likely, combine both under one name) in a crossover project, especially after a certain scene in the 2023 film The Marvels. But such a project has remained elusive, never officially being announced for production. Fortunately, rumors continue to abound that a (possibly smaller) version of such a team will appear in one or both of the upcoming Avengers blockbusters.
At CinemaCon in April, it was confirmed that Kathryn Newton will appear in Doomsday, reprising the role of Cassie Lang/Stature she took on in 2023’s Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. Cassie has since been briefly shown in some of Doomsday‘s trailers, alongside her father, Scott Lang/Ant-Man (Paul Rudd). Scott’s relationship with Cassie has always been crucial to his character, so it’s certainly possible that Newton’s scenes will revolve only around that dynamic, but her inclusion in the anticipated crossover has led many fans to speculate that two other young heroes could also appear to pay off a tease for a possible Young Avengers/Champions storyline.
At the end of The Marvels, Kamala Khan/Ms. Marvel (Iman Vellani) approached Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld), the MCU’s second Hawkeye, in her apartment, hoping to recruit Kate for a team of “kid superheroes” in a scene that paid homage to the famous introduction of Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and the Avengers Initiative in Iron Man. Though Kate points out that, “I’m twenty-three,” she seems open to the idea of joining Kamala’s group, with the latter mentioning that she recently learned of Ant-Man’s daughter, suggesting that she also intends to recruit Cassie. In the subsequent first season of Daredevil: Born Again, Kamala’s father Yusef (Mohan Kapur) tells Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox) that his daughter is currently visiting friends in California, where Scott and Cassie have lived throughout the MCU.
Collectively, these scenes have made fans expect that the trio will next appear together, and offscreen comments from both Steinfeld and Vellani have supported the belief that they’ll join Newton in at least one of the next Avengers films, even if this is still far from confirmed. More unclear is whether either film will see these heroes team up with any of their other comic book peers, even though some of the latter, including the twin sons of Avengers Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) and Vision (Paul Bettany) continue to be prominently featured and/or referenced in other recent projects.
Since WandaVision, the Maximoff family has been scattered across the MCU, with specific members and related characters appearing in different projects. These projects have focused on members of the family trying to reunite with one another and it’s seeming increasingly likely that the ongoing series VisionQuest will end with the current versions of Vision and his son Tommy (Ruaridh Mollica,) who currently uses the last name Shepherd, reestablishing a kind of familial bond. They may even be reunited with Tommy’s brother Billy (Joe Locke,) as well. But while few fans believe that Wanda’s apparent death from Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness will remain permanent, comments from VisionQuest cast and crew members have made it seem unlikely the family’s matriarch will make her full, present-day return in the series. This supports the theory that Wanda’s return will instead be a major plot point in an upcoming movie, with many rumors pointing to her reappearing briefly in Doomsday to tease a more significant storyline in Secret Wars, and the Young Avengers’ most famous comic arc would be the best possible inspiration for such a tale.
Between 2010 and 2012 the Young Avengers starred in a mini-series titled Avengers: The Children’s Crusade. It features the team searching for Wanda, who disappeared after her destructive mental breakdown in the House of M crossover event, so Billy and Tommy can confirm once and for all if they are her reincarnated sons. They find an amnesiac Wanda in the country of Latveria, engaged to marry Doctor Doom. The Young Avengers and other heroes fight to free Wanda from the influence of Doom, who is manipulating her in the hopes of making her reality-altering superpowers his own. During the ensuing conflict, Wanda’s memories are restored and she confirms Billy and Tommy are her sons.
Like most specific comic stories adapted into the MCU, a possible Children’s Crusade arc would inevitably feature some major changes from the source material, especially if it were to take place mostly in Secret Wars, the cast and scale of which are expected to be similarly enormous to Doomsday’s. And, again, even if Kate, Kamala, and/or other Young Avengers/Champions like the Maximoff boys ultimately do wind up appearing in either of the films in addition to Cassie, there’s still no guarantee their roles would involve forming their own team. More cautious and cynical fans have been dubious about the idea of any of the young heroes receiving prominent roles in the main Avengers films, given that they are relatively obscure and that several of the projects in which they’ve appeared received little commercial or critical success. But the Multiverse Saga did also start with WandaVision, and has continued to put members of the young teams in the spotlight, so the idea of its final installments drawing from The Children’s Crusade still makes sense.
Do you think the Young Avengers will appear in Doomsday? Discuss in the comments.
