Captain Marvel
I once thought that Captain Marvel was the logical leader to replace Captain America. With Avengers: Endgame in my rearview, I’m less sure of that idea. Earth has The Avengers; the rest of the universe has the Asgardians of the Galaxy. That’s not enough. It appears, for the immediate future, when there is not a cosmic shattering event to bring The Avengers together, Carol Danvers is spending her solo movies helping out the rest of the galaxy. Based on the two films that we’ve seen her in so far, she’s practically god-level strong, busting through starships like a knife through warm butter. She was ready to take Thanos down until he pulled that Power Stone from the Gauntlet’s knuckle, so her villains will require access to magical MacGuffins. Finding her vulnerabilities will be key to her franchise’s success.
Black Panther
Wakanda was an unconquerable nation until Killmonger exposed its hypocrisies and Thanos the Mad Titan touched down on its soil. How did that country deal with itself during that five-year-period between the Snap and Tony Stark’s Iron Gauntlet reversal? Probably better than most nations, but I’m sure T’Challa will have his plate full in the coming months after Avengers: Endgame. The wounds caused during the first Black Panther film still need to be mended. He’ll be ready to answer the call of the Avengers, but as King, Wakanda will always be his priority.
Ant-Man and the Wasp
Scott Lang and Hope Van Dyne have a potential new member to their team. Cassie, Scott’s daughter, survived the snap and is now an enthusiastic teenager eager to join the family business. Her comic book counterpart went by the name of both Stature and Stinger as a Young Avenger. While we’re all waiting for the Fantastic Four to enter the MCU, Marvel’s first family has already formed. Toss in more Hank Pym, Janet Van Dyne, the excitable X-Con cohorts, and a third Ant-Man film is shaping up to a joyous family affair.
Scarlet Witch
Still suffering from the death of The Vision, Wanda will wander into her Disney+ show looking to fill the void in her heart. Elizabeth Olsen told Variety that WandaVision would have a 50s aesthetic and that immediately springs Tom King’s Vision comic book mini-series to mind. In that storyline, The Vision constructs a robotic family to replicate domesticity while he’s consulting with The White House. That bliss is shattered when family members refuse to behave as programmed. Could WandaVision tell a similar story in reverse? Wanda reconstructs The Vision using her reality-bending powers, and the result is a dark Pet Sematary-like fable that reinforces the idea that “sometimes dead is better.” I’m for it.
Hawkeye
Clint Barton got his family back, and all it cost was his best friend. The S.H.I.E.L.D. badass turned punishing Ronin warrior has a lot of guilt to work though, and he’ll use every second of his Disney+ series to reconcile with the sin he committed to get his family back. His daughter Lila will go a long way in helping him with that emotional growth. Based on what little we saw in Avengers: Endgame, she seems like quite the crack shot herself, and a Hawkeye in the making.
Doctor Strange
What else did Stephen Strange see when he envisioned those 14 million possible futures? As protector of our reality, I want the Doctor Strange sequels to venture into mystical realms undreamed of by the other Avengers. We’ve seen mirror dimensions and dark dimensions, and there must be many other hells out there threatening to penetrate our domain. Doctor Strange has his work cut out for him, especially considering that Baron Mordo still wants to rid the world of sorcerers. And, gosh, Avengers: Endgame revealed a whole mess load of those guys to weed through.
The New Avengers
While some Avenger stories came to an end, and others revealed plenty of future story potential, there are still even more that have not birthed into our theaters yet. We have both The Eternals and Shang-Chi: Master of Kung Fu waiting in the wings. There is also the possibility of the Fantastic Four and the X-Men joining the fold. Phase 3 just ended, but Phase 4 is destined to be the most crowded entry in the saga so far. Three movies a year from Disney just won’t cut it. They gotta crank it up to at least four films a year. Are you ready?
Related Topics: Avengers: Endgame, Black Widow, Captain America, Iron Man, Marvel Studios
