Hey Everyone,
Paul here…

When The Infinity Saga came to a close, The MCU began premiering new movies and Disney+ projects as part of Phase 4. One the biggest questions left unanswered for fans, was the status of The Avengers. With Tony, Steve, and Natasha gone, was there even a team anymore? If so, who was on it? As we’re heading into the end of Phase 4, the films and Disney+ shows have made it pretty clear that The Avengers are still very much a staple of The MCU. We’ve just been left in the dark about some of the details. Now that the team will be officially assembling again with not one, but two new Avengers movies on the horizon, who will make up the New Avengers roster? I thought it would be fun to try to answer that question. These picks include, characters that I think Marvel Studios will likely want on the team, some less obvious, but potentially interesting inclusions, as well as some personal favorites that I’d like to see pop up. We would love to hear your thoughts, so please leave your ideal Avengers roster in the comments below! Anyway, let’s get into it…
The New Avengers
Captain America (Sam Wilson) & The Winter Soldier (Bucky Barnes)


You can’t have The Avengers without Cap and Sam Wilson has shown he’s more than worthy of the mantle. The team also needs someone to fill the leadership role left by Steve (but I think there are a couple of other worthy candidates for team leaders as you’ll see below). When it comes to Bucky, he and Cap are a package deal (whether Cap is Steve or Sam) and frankly, I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Shang-Chi

This one’s a no brained for a couple of reasons. In the marketing for Shang-Chi, the trailers would often say something along the lines of “Get ready for the next Avenger.”. Marvel has always had big plans for this character. Plus the director of Shang-Chi and The Legend of The Ten Rings, Destin Daniel Cretton, is also directing the upcoming Avengers: The Kang Dynasty. So this one’s pretty much a lock.
Captain Marvel

The Avengers need a powerhouse and Carol Danvers certainly fits the bill. She’s another character I could see filling the leadership vacuum in the absence of Cap and Tony. She also has another movie on the way with The Marvels premiering next year.

Ant-Man

Who would have thought that Paul Rudd’s Ant-Man would become such an integral part of The MCU? Compared to some other characters on the list, Scott Lang is a veteran Avenger at this point. Going up against Kang The Conqueror in Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania will make him even more important to The Avengers and The MCU.

Hulk, She-Hulk, or Both
If I had to pick one Hulk that I think Marvel would want to use, it’d be She-Hulk, which would be fine by me. I like the character a lot and I think her new show looks really cool. But one thing we’re missing from this line up, is a scientific genius, so the team needs Bruce Banner. The more Hulk’s the better I always say!
Spider-Man

Tom Holland’s continued role in The MCU is a bit of question mark, but his participation as an Avengers in the Multiverse spanning, Secret Wars, is damn near guaranteed.

Wong

The team needs a big time magic user and Wong is Sorcerer Supreme, after all. It should also be noted that Wong has taken a very proactive role in keeping an eye on the major events and players in Phase 4. Hell, Wong has basically been the Nick Fury of Phase 4. So far he’s already made major appearances in Shang-Chi and The Legend of The Ten Rings, Spider-Man: No Way Home, Doctor Strange in The Multiverse of Madness, and She-Hulk. He’s even seen as a part of mini-Avengers alongside Captain Marvel and Bruce Banner in the Shang-Chi post-credits scene.

Doctor Strange

While many fans saw Dr.Stephen Strange as the natural choice to take up an active leadership role within The Avengers, Marvel recently came out and said that he’s technically not even on the team, let alone one of it’s leaders. Having said that, obviously Doctor Strange is going to be one the main characters in any Avengers film. Doctor Strange is a key character in Secret Wars particularly. Strange and Wong are the mystical Stark and Rhodey.

Hawkeye (Clint Barton)

C’mon he’s a founding Avengers! The Avengers have never lost a battle where Hawkeye was present. He can definitely play both a mentor and leadership role. He’s a clutch member and could be the heart of the team in this new era.
Other Likely Contenders
Without going into too much detail, based on skills, experiences, abilities, and seniority, I think it’s a safe bet that Marvel will include, some or all, of the heroes on The Avengers roster:
Rhodey aka War Machine


Ms Marvel

One of the Eternals?….

Phastos (his power is basically control of technology, a technopath, and the team is out of the big science guy with Tony Stark gone)

My Top Picks To Join The Avengers
Loki

This would be so much fun. At this point Loki has done a complete 180, going from villain to anti-hero to full-blown hero. Loki was the reason The Avengers had to form in the first place! Making him an official member of the team would create so many interesting character and storytelling opportunities. Loki was the first major MCU character to understand the threat that Kang poses to The Multiverse. Much like Banner in the beginning of Infinity War, Loki could show up early in the story to warn the rest of Earth’s protectors of the coming threat.

Daredevil

Daredevil is by far my favorite Marvel superhero and I love that the character has left Netflix purgatory and is poised to become a major player in The MCU. Matt Murdock made his first canonical MCU appearance in Spider-Man: No Way Home and he’s already confirmed to have major roles in multiple upcoming projects. Including She-Hulk, Echo, the animated series Spider-Man: Freshman Year, and his new Disney+ series Daredevil: Born Again in 2024. In addition to being one of the best hand-in-hand combatants in the world, he’d also bring some unique abilities and skills to The Avengers. It would be pretty sick to see The Devil of Hell’s Kitchen join Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.

So which MCU characters do you will make the New Avengers lineup? Do you have a favorite character that you’d love to see on the team? Let us know in the comments below!
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-Paul..>t