With a decade of Marvel movies in the rearview mirror, fans are starting to look to the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe - specifically, future generations in the MCU. Since the Marvel comic on which these movies are based have been going on since 1939, it’s only natural that some of our favorite superheroes have either had biological or adoptive children of their own, or had younger heroes succeed them.
Especially because some noteworthy Young Avengers characters have already begun to appear, fans are hoping to see some excellent new blood in the MCU soon, including some who have been hinted at or have had minor appearances and deserve a full-blown film of their own.
Riri Williams - Ironheart
With Tony Stark’s sacrifice in Avengers: Endgame, there’s a huge opportunity regarding the character that may pick up his mantle. One possibility is Riri Williams, aka Ironheart, who was introduced just a few years ago to the comic canon. She’s a supergenius at MIT who’s in the process of building her own Iron Man-esque supersuit with stolen parts she got from school when she’s busted and has to flee school, but that doesn’t stop her from going on to be a Tony Stark approved superheroine. It would also be notable if Ironheart did take Iron Man’s place, as Riri is both a woman and a woman of color - it could bring some excellent representation to the MCU.
Kamala Khan - Ms. Marvel
Another exciting possibility for the MCU would be the inclusion of Kamala Khan’s version of Ms. Marvel (especially now that her hero Captain Marvel is out keeping the intergalatic peace). She was the first Muslim Marvel character to have her own comic book. Ms. Marvel is set to appear on the small screen through Disney+, which may be an excellent sign that she’ll someday have her own feature film as well.
Monica Rambeau - Captain Marvel/Spectrum
Monica Rambeau, lovingly referred to as ‘Lieutenant Trouble’ by Carol Danvers in Captain Marvel, is the energetic daughter of Maria Rambeau, Carol’s best friend from her time on Earth.
Especially since she’s already been introduced into the Cinematic Universe and is rumored to appear in Disney+’s WandaVision, it would be too easy to let her follow her comic origin and take over the Captain Marvel name - or, as Captain Marvel is currently still alive in the MCU, she could be introduced as one of her other names: Photon, Pulsar, or Spectrum.
Karolina Dean - L.S.D
Karolina Dean, aka Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds (often abbreviated as L.S.D, get it?), is already a lead in Marvel’s show Runaways, with her own team. As she’s already gotten her own powers, it wouldn’t be too hard to bring her into the broader MCU, and it would have the added bonus of bringing the rest of the Runaways with her.
Kate Bishop - Hawkeye
Kate Bishop, the new Hawkeye, has been around in the comics for about 15 years already, and now she’s set to get her premiere on the small screen, at the very least - assuming nothing gets in the way of Disney+’s Hawkeye show, tentatively titled Anchor Points between now and 2022. After the focus on Hawkeye in the last couple of Marvel movies, it would make sense to introduce a newer, less traumatized version of the character, though Jeremey Renner is set to star, potentially operating as Kate Bishop’s mentor.
Cassie Lang - Stature
Cassie Lang is Scott Lang’s daughter. As the daughter of Ant-Man, Cassie has easy access to Pym Particles, though they didn’t seem to affect her... until they did. When Iron Lad (the younger version of a classic Avengers villain) began searching for a list of heroes to help him defeat his evil future self, Kate Bishop’s Hawkeye and Cassie were both excluded, Cassie's anger at which caused her to realize her changes in size were triggered by her emotions.
In addition to shrinking, she could grow taller, as well - much like Ant-Man in the current MCU. As she’s appeared in both of the Ant-Man movies as well as Avengers: Endgame, Cassie may be the easiest point of entry for the Young Avengers on the big screen.
America Chavez - Miss America
America Chavez, also known as Miss America, made waves in the comic world when she became Marvel’s first Latin-American LGBTQIA+ character to receive her own series in 2017. Sure, the series was canceled just a year later, but Miss America lives on in another Avengers team. Unlike some of the other characters mentioned on this list, there hasn’t been so much as a whisper of her potential arrival to the MCU at large. However, given that one of her abilities is to kick open holes in reality and visit other realities in other parts of the multiverse, that may not be such an issue. As she got her start in the Young Avengers, there’s still a lot of potential to see Miss America on the big screen.
Loki
Seeing Loki on this list may be confusing, as Loki has been a staple villain in the MCU nearly since there was an MCU. However, in Norse mythology, Loki frequently changed shapes, species, and genders, and the same is true for Marvel’s Loki. We haven’t seen too much of this ability in quite some time in the MCU (aside from occasionally impersonating a hero to gain the upper hand, or hearing about how many times he turned into a snake to bite Thor). Tom Hiddleston is excellent in the role (and will continue to be excellent in Disney+’s series Loki, scheduled for 2021), but he doesn’t quite have the ‘young’ part of the Young Avengers down.
In the comics, Loki was ‘killed’, but has the ability to permanently cheat death, and so was reborn into the body of a child, with no memory of his former life. Eventually, his memories and his nature return, and he must continually fight his own tricky nature and his evil future self so that he doesn’t again become a villain. Kid Loki would be a good point of recognition for bringing in the Young Avengers, tying them in with the original group.
Hulkling - Teddy Altman
Now that the Kree and the Skrull have been fully introduced with Captain Marvel, Hulkling may just be a short jump away. In spite of his name, he is unrelated to Bruce Banner and the Incredible Hulk; instead, Teddy Altman is in fact a half-Skrull, half-Kree prince of both worlds, born in secret and destined to either die or take over the throne(s) and unite the two species. He has the ability to shapechange, along with super-strength, and as one of Marvel’s most prominent queer characters, it would go a long way for representation in the Marvel movies if he were to debut.
Wiccan - Billy Kaplan
Wiccan is a tough character to explain. With the given name Billy Kaplan, Wiccan later discovers that he not only has a twin, but that he and his brother are the magical children of Wanda and Vision, which Wanda essentially willed into existence out of desperation, as Vision is incapable of biological reproduction. It’s a bit more complicated than that (there’s some Harry Potter-esque ‘shards of other people’s souls’ machinations), but all the same, Wiccan exists, with Scarlet Witch-like abilities, including reality-warping, telepathy, teleportation, and astral projection. Furthermore, Billy is another extremely notable queer character within the Marvel universe. With WandaVision premiering soon, the show could present a simple way to get the Wiccan (and his brother, Speed) on screen, as the two main characters of the show are his parents...sort of.