**Massive spoilers for Avengers: Endgame in this article.**
There’s a moment in Marvel’s Avengers: Endgame that I firmly believe was set up to drive home who the new trio of the MCU was going to be, now that Tony, Steve, and Thor are stepping out of the limelight.
As the Avengers battle Thanos’s army, Clint is running to deliver the Infinity Stones to Scott and Hope so they can take them through the Quantum Realm and get them far away from Thanos. When Clint can’t go any farther, T’Challa appears and takes the new gauntlet. He then fights his way through the battlefield, and when Ebony Maw stops him, he passes the gauntlet to Peter Parker. Peter, in turn, takes the gauntlet as far as he can with a little help from his friends, until he passes it off to Carol, who would’ve delivered the payload had Thanos not destroyed their van.
T’Challa. Peter Parker. Carol Danvers. If you want your new core trio, here they are.
It might seem like an easy assumption to make. Spider-Man is a beloved hero and probably was always going to be part of the core members of Marvel’s Phase Four. His next solo film, after all, does supposedly close out Phase Three. T’Challa and Carol were probably also planned to be big stars, and the money they raked in at the box office further ensures that they’ll be the new leads of the franchise.
But who will join them? The next time a team-up movie rolls around, it can’t just be Peter, T’Challa, and Carol on their own. They’ll need help, and help they’ll have. With Phase Four, we’ll probably get a new Avengers lineup, featuring both familiar faces and some new heroes.
Let’s establish this theory with a base line that the surviving Avengers who aren’t retired/old or dead—so Thor, Hawkeye, and Bruce—will probably not be in the new Avengers lineup. Their stories have moved beyond Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, and at least one (Hawkeye) is being written out of the franchise with his Disney+ show.
So, who’s joining the team?
He might have been an Avenger before, but Sam Wilson has to be part of any future team-up movies now. He’s the new Captain America. They can’t just write Sam out of the franchise through his upcoming show and pretend like Captain America isn’t a thing any more, especially since the show emphasizes he’s still using the mantle Falcon. This would be his time to really shine as co-Captain with Carol, or he could be the founding member of the team, since he’s been an Avenger for a bit. No matter how it shakes out, Sam should be an Avenger.
Who else should join the team? Well, assuming we get a Captain Marvel 2, set in the present, before any team-up film, a grown up Monica Rambeau absolutely should join the team as Spectrum. They tease her future as a hero in Captain Marvel, with Fury saying she could fly up to meet up with Carol after she leaves. Also exposed to extra-dimensional energy in the comics, Monica could be a SHIELD agent who became Spectrum and, as a result, is ready to join up with “Auntie Carol” and kick some alien ass.
It’s also worth noting that Monica, in the comics, is a member of the Avengers, and one of her big foes is Nebula. Now that Nebula is more of an anti-heroine than bad guy, I wouldn’t mind seeing Monica and Nebula snark it up at each other as they defend the galaxy.
Besides, it goes without saying that we need a woman of color as a superhero on the Avengers team. Having one white woman on the team is not diversity.
Who else could join the team? I’m sure Doctor Strange will make an appearance, hopefully alongside Wong. I wouldn’t mind if Rhodey or Nebula wound up on the team—especially Rhodey, who’s long been denied the chance he deserves to shine as his own hero. Valkyrie should also be an Avenger, but she might be busy as the new King of Asgard.
With Kate Bishop being introduced in the Disney+ Hawkeye show and Cassie Lang now old enough to be a teen superhero, we could definitely see the Young Avengers as a team-up sooner rather than later, as well. While they might not team up with the New Avengers initially, that’ll probably be a crossover event that will get us all in theaters together.
Who do you want to see in the new Avengers line-up? Let us know in the comments!
(image: Marvel)
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