Avengers 5: Full New Lineup Revealed, Includes Wolverine
Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige has revealed that Avengers 5 is coming.
This article is more than 2 years old
With Captain America retired while Iron Man and Black Widow are dead there was no way to know for certain after Avengers: Endgame if we’d ever even have another Avengers movie. Sure Marvel is going to go right on making superhero movies, but whether there’d ever be another team-up for an actual Avengers 5 was anyone’s guess.
The guessing ended though, when Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige started teasing that Avengers 5 is coming.
“Yeah, I mean, the MCU is all interconnected, but we really focus on one movie at a time. We’re going to make the best Black Widow movie we can possibly make, the best Eternals movie we can make, the best Shang-Chi, Doctor Strange, Thor, Captain Marvel, Black Panther, right? And keep evolving their stories. And then, yes, it’s always fun to see them come together in a master plan. Which is, I promise you, well under way.”
– -Marvel’s Kevin Feige on Avengers 5
Full Lineup For Avengers 5?
One of the big rumors making the rounds is that the full lineup Marvel is planning for Avengers 5 is already set. Here’s what scoopers are claiming will be the superheroes appearing in Avengers 5…
Consider this just a rumor for now. It’s still very early in this process and even if this really is the lineup Marvel has in mind currently, it could totally change by the time The Avengers 5 finally arrives in theaters years from now.
Killing Captain Marvel
One of the big and more likely rumors swirling around Avengers 5 is that Captain Marvel could end up being the bad guy. It’ll likely be because she’s possessed by an evil entity and, of course, by the end she’ll probably be back to being a hero.
As part of that plot, the latest word is that one of the ideas they’re scripting out is having War Machine being the Avenger sent to kill Captain Marvel when she goes bad. War Machine generally works for the US government in addition to being an Avenger and the idea here is that it would be the government that sends him to kill her.
He won’t succeed, of course, but it’ll be interesting to see Don Cheadle face off with Brie Larson, especially given their characters having a shared background in the military.
The Eternals Team-Up
It seems the next adventure for the Avengers may end up revolving around The Eternals, which are getting their own movie soon. Feige explains…
“The Eternals know about the existence of the Avengers, the Avengers don’t know much about the Eternals. Yet.”
– -Marvel’s Kevin Feige on Avengers 5
Captain Marvel In Avengers 5
By the time Avengers 5 rolls around, pretty much all of the original Avengers will have retired and that’ll leave characters like Spider-Man and Captain Marvel as the longest standing members of the team. So you can assume that Captain Marvel is going to figure pretty prominently into whatever happens in Avengers 5.
In fact lately we’re hearing that Captain Marvel 2 will be the movie Marvel uses to set up Avengers 5. It’ll work in much the same way Captain America: Civil War set up Avengers: Infinity War. It also probably means Captain Marvel 2 will contain a lot of other superheroes, superheroes that are slated to become the new great of Avengers.
To get Captain Marvel in Avengers 5, though, Marvel had to agree to give up a few things. Brie Larson had demands, and word is those demands have now been met.
Among those demands was the notion that Brie Larson’s character had to be the new leader of The Avengers so she can get top billing. She’d take that role over more established and financially successful characters like Spider-Man. But she wanted it and apparently word is that she has gotten it.
In addition, according to WGTC Brie Larson, demanded she be paid the same amount as her male co-stars. That includes the ones playing bigger name characters, like Spider-Man. Those demands have now been met as well, according to various sources.
So saddle up for The Avengers 5 starring Captain Marvel and also Spider-Man and Scarlet Witch if there’s enough time and money left for them.
The Battle To Lead The Avengers
Brie Larson made it part of her contract negotiations that she’d end up as the leader of The Avengers, but she’s not the only Marvel actor who wants center stage in Avengers 5. Word is that Tom Holland has started pushing for Spider-Man to become the new leader of the Avengers.
Holland has had meetings with Marvel head Kevin Feige to discuss the possibility of Spider-Man becoming the lead Avenger. Apparently those discussions didn’t go Holland’s way though, and while Feige said they’d consider some sort of co-lead down the road, for now Captain Marvel is the top Avenger.
From Marvel’s perspective it probably doesn’t make sense to give Spider-Man that big a position in their new superhero team since they don’t actually own the rights to the character. Spider-Man is really only on loan from Sony and you never know when things between Disney and Sony might fall apart.
Meanwhile Marvel is pushing hard to promote #diversity in their movies and as part of that mandate probably aren’t interested in having the Avengers 5 led by a white male, even if that white male is almost unquestionably the most popular current Marvel character.
Hulk For Avengers 5?
Iron Man and Captain America got very final ending. Thor is still making solo movies. Black Widow is getting a solo movie and then she’s done. Falcon, Winter Soldier, Wanda, The Vision, and Hawkeye are getting a TV shows. The only one of the original Avengers not really accounted for is the Hulk. So will he be in Avengers 5? What’s next for him? Apparently nothing.
Mark Ruffalo, who plays Bruce Banner and the Hulk, appeared on the Graham Norton Show and talked about what’s next for the character. He started out by saying, “I don’t know.” But then he went further and admitted that given what he’s been told, “…it is supposed to be over and that [Endgame] was supposed to be the end.”
That seems spectacularly unfair to the Hulk, whose character arc never really got fleshed out and who never really got a solo movie, at least not one with Ruffalo’s version of the character. There’s a chance we might still see him show up in Avengers 5, but that seems more and more unlikely.
The New Iron Man
With Tony Stark gone the Marvel universe is left without an Iron Man, but a new rumor suggests Disney has a plan to bring in someone new to fill the suit. Better still, they teased it in Avengers: Endgame.
You probably saw this kid at Tony Stark’s funeral in Avengers: Endgame and wondered who it was…
That is actor Ty Simpkins who played Harley Keener in Iron Man 3. There he played a critical role in helping Tony to get back on his feet. Back then he looked like this…
The rumor is that Harley Keener is coming back to the Marvel universe in the future. He’ll use technology left behind by Tony in Iron Man 3 to build his own Iron Man suit, and start going around fighting crime and even calling himself Iron Man.
Who Won’t Be In Avengers 5
- Captain America, at least the Steve Rogers version of him, is retired. Don’t expect Steve Rogers back.
- Tony Stark is dead and staying that way. You won’t see him as Iron Man.
- Black Widow is dead. Sure she’s getting that solo movie, but it’s a prequel. She won’t be in Avengers 5.
- Hulk… all indications are from Mark Ruffalo that Marvel is done with his character. So we probably won’t see him, though there’s a tiny chance.
- Pretty much anyone else is at least possible, though some are more possible than others.
Who Is Likely To Be In
- Captain Marvel is sure to be in the movie, in one form or another, no matter how much Brie Larson costs.
- Spider-Man will likely be there and may even end up leading the team, barring some contract mishap with Sony.
- Doctor Strange seems likely to show up, though that may depend on what happens in Doctor Strange 2.
- Scarlett Witch seems likely to be there, though that could change depending on what happens in her Disney Plus limited series WandaVision.
- The Vision probably won’t be there. Yes he’s in WandaVision but we’re pretty sure he’s dead. Still, he’s not completely out of the picture.
- Ant-Man and The Wasp might show up, though they’ve never been some of the more popular members of the team so Marvel might leave them out if the roster gets too full.
- The Eternals are definitely in Avengers 5.
- The Guardians of the Galaxy, or at least some of them, could show up. Though they might also just be off on their own adventures somewhere and not get involved.
- Falcon and the Winter Soldier are getting their own TV show, but they still might appear. That becomes even more likely if, as has been rumored, Falcon ends up becoming the new Captain America.
- Shang-Chi is a new character getting his own movie and he’ll probably be in Avengers 5.
- War Machine is still around and could show up as an Iron Man replacement.
- Thor’s time in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is winding down and rumor has it he’ll be replaced by Jane Foster as Thor in the upcoming Thor: Love and Thunder. Still he could show up and Jane Foster’s Thor almost definitely will show up.
Here’s one fan’s awesome rendering of what the lineup of Avengers 5 could look like, in poster form…
Avengers 5 Release Date
Marvel hasn’t set a release date for Avengers 5 yet. They have a lot to get done before then. We don’t even know when they’ll start filming it, right now.
The Illuminati In Avengers 5
In Marvel Comics the Illuminati isn’t a group fabled by conspiracy theorists but an actual superhero team. It was constructed in secret to deal with unconventional threats and the Fantastic Four’s Mr. Fantastic, Dr. Strange, Iron Man, Professor X, Black Bolt, and Namor are members.
It’s been heavily rumored that we might get an Illuminati movie from Marvel. One fan couldn’t wait for the idea to get official, so he put together this artwork which gives us a good look at what Krasinski would look like as Reed Richards in The Illuminati…
When asked about the Illuminati in the past, Marvel head Kevin Feige had this to say…
“What’s fun about the Illuminati is seeing certain characters interact with certain other characters. I don’t know about that particular storyline, but some of those characters we’ll be seeing together onscreen in the next Avengers.“
So while it may be awhile til we get the Illuminati we’ll get some of those characters together, many of whom like Reed Richards haven’t even been cast yet. But he will be soon, and the top contender to play him right now is John Krasinski.
Avengers 5: Secret Wars?
“Secret Wars” is a classic crossover plotline from Marvel Comics. It originally appeared in a 12-issue limited series released from May 1984 through April 1985. In the comic book version of the story a group of Earth’s mightiest heroes are transported to an alien “Battleworld” and forced to fight a group of villains.
We’ve heard rumors that Marvel is developing a possible Secret Wars movie, specifically as a way to bring back some of the original Avengers who are, as of this moment, all but retired. With Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness approaching, just about anything becomes possible including resurrecting some of the Avengers who have died. This could be their window to bring them back for Avengers 5.
In a Q&A way back in 2018 Avengers directors The Russo Brothers said they were done making Avengers movies after Endgame, unless Marvel decided to do Secret Wars. That’s the one thing they thought might bring them back.
Ben Affleck As Daredevil?
Doing Secret Wars would mean Marvel can bring in all kinds of variations on established Marvel characters. One of the ones they’re considering is bringing in Ben Affleck to play Daredevil, according to this rumor.
Ben Affleck played Daredevil in the superhero character’s 2003 movie. At the time Daredevil was owned by 20th Century Fox (which Disney now owns) and it was released as a Fox movie. The 2003 Daredevil predated the creation of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (Iron Man wouldn’t kick that off until 2008) so it’s not considered to be part of the current Marvel canon. But Secret Wars gives Marvel the ability to pull in non-canon characters and word is they want to lure Affleck back to appear.
Thanos Returns?
If they do go the route of Avengers 5: Secret Wars then word is they also want to bring back Thanos. The big bad of Secret Wars is Doctor Doom and in the comics Doctor Doom and Thanos square off. Doom offers Thanos a position as one of his gods and Thanos refuses, thinking himself Doom’s equal. So they fight and Doom rips out his skeleton. Death number three for Thanos.
Thanos was recently ranked the most popular movie villain of the past 50 years. He’s the new Darth Vader and for Marvel, a studio which has otherwise struggled to create memorable villains, the temptation to bring him back is huge.
