Summary
After what feels like an extended period of quiet onAvengers 5, recent updates have suggested a director is close, and most interestingly, thatmore than 60 characters could return. That would make the upcoming crossover event theMCU’s biggest project - and likely the most expensive - by some distance. Inevitably, concerns about balancing that many characters were immediately raised, but it would be foolish to ignore the cool factor here.
The question now is who those characters are, so let’s work it out. The original report mentioned characters returning, so I’m limiting the potential appearances here only to MCU characters who have appeared already or are definitely appearing very soon. That means that speculation that the likes of Ghost Rider will appear in some form is acknowledged but left out.
While initial reports suggested “more than 60” characters could return, laying out all the possibilities actually paints a picture of an even more colossal figure. In actual fact, with all the active characters in the MCUwhenAvengers 5releases, we could be talking about three figures.
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Avengers 5’s Most Likely New Avengers Team
Earth’s Mightiest Heroes Will Have a New Line-Up
Starting with the MCU’s core team, it’s possible to predict the foundation of the new Avengers team based solely on characters who are still presumed active in the main timeline and who have, at some point, appeared as official Avengers or been more recently recruited.
That means the biggest individual characters in the MCU - Spider-Man, Thor, Captain America, Hulk - will all return. Marvel does have an in-built loophole of the Avengers not strictly being active to leave some veterans out, but it’s unlikely they’d stay on the sidelines.That’s the curse of superheroism in the MCU: it’s not optional.
The biggest casting question for this group is who will play Wasp, afterEvangeline Lily announced her retirementfrom acting. With no Ant-Man project between now andAvengers 5’s release, it would be unlikely for her to be written out, so the project will need to recast her.
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The Falcon and the Winter Soldier
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Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania
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Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
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Awkwafina
Some of the potential Avengers cast have upcoming projects beforeAvengers 5: Sam Wilson will star inCaptain America: Brave New World, Rhodey will return inArmor Wars, and White Vision has his own series,Vision Quest. Assuming none are killed off, they will logically return. And as for potential new recruits, the MCU has a backbench of heroes:
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Thor: Love and Thunder
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The Young Avengers
Ms Marvel’s New Hero Team Could Form Before 2026
The Marvels' post-credits sceneset up the MCU’s Young Avengers team, after years of speculation that they’d be introduced to appeal to younger Marvel fans. Right now, we don’t know the exact line-up, but Kamala Khan has established herself as the team’s answer to Nick Fury, Kate Bishop is the first recruit, and Cassie Lang was notably name-checked.
Beyond them, Ironheart makes sense, Hulk’s son Skaar is a reasonable bet, and America Chavez would be a very powerful addition, considering her training under Wong. And while he’s not a superpowered individual, Eli Bradley’s previous appearance inFalcon & The Winter Soldiercould lead to a call-up.
The team has not yet been properly formed or debuted as a going concern, but The Marvels' set-up suggests there’s a good chance we’ll see them before 2026.
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Young Avengers Cast: 16 Potential Members Already Set Up In The MCU
The MCU is getting closer to assembling a new generation of superheroes. These are the Young Avengers that have already been set up for Phase 4.
The Thunderbolts
Marvel’s Next Superhero Team Has A Darker Edge
At the minute, the question ofwho dies inThunderbolts*is worryingly pressing: rumor has it the earliest drafts included the team being sent to their deaths. That doesn’t necessarily mean they’re actually going to die, but suicide missions do tend to have a habit of being realized.
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Ant-Man and The Wasp
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Thunderbolts(upcoming)
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The New Guardians Of The Galaxy
Rocket Raccoon’s New Band Of Misfits Should Return
Given thatGuardians of the Galaxy Vol 3’s endingestablishes a new Guardians team under Rocket’s leadership, it seems highly unlikely we won’t see the new team doing some actual guarding of the galaxy. This iteration of the Guardians is actually significantly more powerful than the originals, but they’re far less experienced, with two children in their ranks (if you include Adam Warlock).
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Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
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Old Guardians Of The Galaxy Characters Likely To Return
Which Retired Guardians Could Come Back Into The Fold?
TheGuardians of the Galaxy Vol 3post-creditsstinger promised that"the legendary Star-Lord will return", and now that he’s on Earth, a team-up with the Avengers makes sense. Meanwhile, Nebula set herself up as the ruler of Knowhere, giving her an obligation as protector. Mantis, on the other hand, went off to find herself, but she wouldn’t turn her back on her family in a crisis.
Howard the Duck is more of a wildcard, but we know he turned up for the final battle inAvengers: Endgame, so he has both spirit and responsibility, and honestly, who wouldn’t want to see him join the fight again?
It’s pretty simple to rule out Dave Bautista’s Drax, based on the actor’s comments, while the same goes for Zoe Saldana’s Gamora, after she too confirmed she was done with the character. Both could probably be enticed back, but they’re also both easily written out. For now, they stay on the discard pile.
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MCU Villains Who Could Return
A multiversal threat - even if it isn’t the Council of Kangs - that threatened all existence could do something no previous MCU crossover has really managed:calling villains up to fight alongside the heroes. After all, they can’t fight over dominion of a world that doesn’t exist any more. There are some particularly intriguing options here, including Loki, who currently sits at the heart of the multiverse, and Harrison Ford’s yet-to-debut Red Hulk.
Kang himself still hasn’t been confirmed as returning, and the title change back toAvengers 5(even if temporary) is hardly confidence-building in that respect.Recasting Kangwould not be as complex as some may believe, though, and Comic Con 2024 may see the answer. It would be a shame to walk back his involvement, butAnt-Man & The Wasp: Quantumaniapresented Marvel with a problem that lessening his role might just fix.
There is also a slight chance Emma Corrin’s Cassandra Nova reappears afterDeadpool & Wolverine, but given she seems to be trapped in the Void, for now, let’s assume she stays there with whatever remains of her army of lost souls.
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Vincent D’Onofrio
Echo
Elizabeth Olsen’s Scarlet Witch is undoubtedly the most contentious inclusion here, because of her apparent death inDoctor Strange 2, but we never saw a body.By the rules of superhero clichés, that means she could very easily return, and it’s one of those persistent rumors that feels genuinely likely. Even if the mainline Wanda doesn’t return,Multiverse of Madnessestablished that variants exist, and each of them would be under threat.
The Midnight Sons
Rumors Of A Supernatural MCU Team-Up Won’t Go Away
Rumors have long suggested that the MCU will form aMidnight Sonsteamto deal with more supernatural threats to the timeline. Even without that project being confirmed, the most likely candidates to join that team are still active in the MCU in some form, and are logical bets to reappear inAvengers 5.
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Magical Characters
Sorcerors And Witches Assemble
Arguably the most powerful group of characters in the entire MCU, the sorcerors and witches could be key to turning the tide against whichever threats emerge inAvengers 5. Alongside Doctor Strange (and possibly Scarlet Witch), Wong feels inevitable, Clea (Charlize Theron) is currently with Doctor Strange, and Agatha would be a very interesting outside chance.
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Mutants
The Age Of Mutants Is Coming And It Could Start With Avengers 5
Even without theupcoming X-Men rebootlanding beforeAvengers 5, there are active mutants who could join the multiversal war. Ryan Reynolds' Deadpool tenure in the MCU surely won’t end after one movie, and unlessDeadpool & Wolverinekills off High Jackman’s beloved Logan (again), he should also return.Not least for Bob Iger’s promise to heavily lean on familiar character brands.
Then there’s Namor, played by Tenoch Huerta, whose further involvement is complicated by accusations against him in summer 2023 that he denied. AndThe Marvels' ending, of course, sent Monica Rambeau to a new universe where she met a variant of her mother, Maria, code-named Binary (Lashana Lynch) and Kelsey Grammer’s Beast. That could mean any number of other Fox X-Men actors returning, but we at the very least got a name-check for Professor Charles Xavier.
WithAvengers 5’s story presumably tying up the incursions arc, this alternate universe - which was already crashing into the main MCU universe - coming back into play makes sense. Particularly because Monica needs to find her way home.
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Upcoming MCU Debutants
Marvel’s First Family Should Join The Fray
Alongside the Avengers and the multiple other superhero teams who could (and probably will) play a part inAvengers 5,you can’t rule out the appearance of the new Fantastic Four. 2025 will see their MCU debut, and it’s assumed that they will come to the mainline universe after their own is destroyed. That would wrap them up in the multiverse’s incursion arc, and make an appearance inAvengers 5quite likely.
On top of those big names,Yahya Abdul-Mateen II’s Wonder Man- who has been an Avenger in the comics notably - has his own Marvel Spotlight show in the works. We don’t yet have a release date for it, but the production is complete and it feels unlikely that he’d just disappear as quickly as he appears.
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