Warning: Spoilers for Thor: Love and Thunder
Thor: Love and Thunder and other major MCU developments show that Marvel is in the process of setting up a ridiculously overpowered superhero team for Avengers 5. The original MCU Avengers was a fairly balanced group, so there would naturally be some expectation for Marvel to retain that approach when the time comes for it to rebuild the group. However, there are signs that Marvel may have other plans for its next incarnation of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.
The Avengers are currently defunct in the MCU, but there’s very little doubt that it’s only a matter of time before Marvel officially adds The Avengers 5 to its slate of upcoming MCU projects. It’s true of course that Captain America, Iron Man, and Black Widow are all off the table for any future team-ups, but the growing list of active MCU heroes will make reassembling the team fairly easy for Avengers 5. Gradually, Phase 4 has been packing the Marvel Cinematic Universe with new heroes, many of which being characters with strong ties to the comic book iteration of the group. All things considered, Marvel Studios has plenty of noteworthy candidates at its disposal.
The specific characters showing up in Phase 4 are a hint at what kind of team the next Avengers squad will be. Interestingly, most of them are in the highest tier of physical strength in Marvel Comics. The Thor: Love and Thunder mid-credits scene saw Brett Goldstein’s Hercules follow Eternals’ Starfox to become the latest classic Avengers powerhouse to appear in the MCU. By the end of Phase 4, Hercules and Starfox are expected to be joined by several other Avengers heavyweights, including She-Hulk, Wonder Man, and Namor the Sub-Mariner. Not only that, but Captain Marvel, Smart Hulk, and Thor are still around as options for Avengers 5. Of course, Marvel is unlikely to use all of the aforementioned characters to fill up the next roster, but even using just some of them will risk Marvel building an Avengers team that’s a bit too powerful.
There’s a clear difference between the lineup of the first Avengers movie and what Marvel is seemingly setting up for Avengers 5. Due to the inclusion of Thor and Hulk, the 2012 movie had two of Marvel’s strongest superheroes, whereas Avengers 5 may end up with three or four, especially since Namor, Hercules, Wonder Man, Captain Marvel, She-Hulk, Smart Hulk, and Thor are all real possibilities for roster spots. The Avengers easily found balance through Captain America, Black Widow, and Hawkeye, who obviously lack the raw power of the others. Doing that again may be a bit more challenging for Avengers 5 since it has more heavyweights available than it does non-powered heroes. To find at least some form of balance, it’ll need the likes of Shang Chi, Black Knight, Sam Wilson’s Captain America, and perhaps Moon Knight.
If movies like Thor: Love and Thunder keep piling on with more top-tier Marvel characters, Avengers 5 could feature a nearly unstoppable assembly of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. If that happens, it would take a villain much stronger than Thanos to even pose a threat to them. Multiple villains from across the MCU may have to join forces just to stand a chance.
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