Since its inception, Marvel Studios has had to grapple with a problem unique to live-action movies. Unlike the comics, these characters are visibly aging and that, coupled with actors not necessarily wanting to play the same character forever, means they constantly have to be looking to the future for the next batch of heroes.
It’s long been suspected that they’re busily setting up a Young Avengers team to come together in a new movie. Likely candidates for membership are Florence Pugh’s Yelena, Hailee Steinfeld’s Kate Bishop, Letitia Wright’s Shuri, Will Deusner’s Skaar, Dominique Thorne’s Riri Williams, and Iman Vellani’s Ms. Marvel.
But, with no official announcement of any Young Avengers movie and time steadily marching on, fans are getting worried that these Young Avengers aren’t going to be young forever:
A reply points out that Hailee Steinfeld is only a year or so away from being the same age at which Scarlett Johansson debuted as Black Widow in Iron Man 2. However, given the tradition of Hollywood casting, we’re sure that actors in their early thirties can believably play characters in their twenties for some time to come yet. Plus, Iman Vellani is only 20 and Xochitl Gomez is only 17, so they still have long MCU futures ahead of them.
Others say Marvel may not even go with ‘Young’ Avengers at all, perhaps choosing ‘New’ Avengers or simply just ‘Avengers’ instead. After all, these characters have all proved themselves as capable heroes in their debuts, and for many, it wouldn’t be a huge step-up to fight in the big leagues.
Whatever the case it’s clear that Marvel Studios is busily laying the ground for new stories and characters for years to come, and we can’t wait to see the baby-faced stars of today turn into the same kind of grizzled veterans we saw battling Thanos in Endgame.