Being a hero in the MCU isn't for the faint of heart. Anytime a good guy steps onto the battlefield, there's a chance they don't make it home that night. Take the end of Avengers: Infinity War, for example, which saw Thanos collect all of the Infinity Stones and wipe out half of the universe's population. So many heroes lost five years of their lives, and an unlucky few were gone for good.
Avengers: Doomsday will look to follow in Infinity War's footsteps as Robert Downey Jr.'s Doctor Doom enters the picture. Like Thanos, Doom is likely to walk out of the movie with blood on his hands. At this point, it's hard for fans to pinpoint who's on the chopping block, as every good guy could be on thin ice. That's why the multiverse created insiders.
Alex Perez of The Cosmic Circus did a Q&A where the topic of Doomsday's survivors came up. And after being asked about whether Avengers: Secret Wars would focus on a similar group of heroes to the 2015 comic, Perez reported that "younger" characters would be stepping into the spotlight.
Skimming Doomsday's cast list doesn't reveal a plethora of young characters. Yelena Belova might fit that description, and the same could be said for Johnny Storm. However, Perez is likely referring to a group that wasn't represented in the initial chair reveal back in March 2025: the Young Avengers.
The Children Are The Future Of The MCU After Avengers: Doomsday
Anyone could see Perez's report and brush it off as nothing more than another rumor. But that would be foolish because the pieces are already being put in place for it to come to fruition.
For starters, all the way back in 2025, Perez reported that Kate Bishop and Kamala Khan would appear in Doomsday. They have yet to appear in any marketing, but that's not the only way to get information out. During the promotional tour for the Animal Farm movie, Andy Serkis revealed that he's excited to see Ms. Marvel actor Iman Vellani in Doomsday (via CinemaHub). While she played off her director's statement well, it's impossible to ignore moving forward.
And then there's the Cassie Lang of it all. Despite not being one of Doomsday's named cast members, Kathryn Newton appeared in the trailer for the film shown at CinemaCon. With the ant out of the bag, Newton wasted no time running to social media to confirm her appearnce in the highly anticipated team-up movie.
The scene Newton shows up in sees her character being embraced by her father, Scott Lang, aka Ant-Man. All signs point to Scott leaving his daughter on the sidelines while he travels with the rest of the Avengers to fight Doom and save the multiverse from peril.
Based on Thor's Doomsday trailer, he's taking a page out of Scott's book and leaving his daughter, Love, at home. He prays to his father, Odin, that he's able to return to her safely and give her a life of peace. But what if he isn't able to keep his promise?
If all the Avengers go out and either die or are misplaced throughout the multiverse during the conflict with Doom, the MCU's last hope may very well be its young heroes.
Insider Daniel Ritchman reported in March that Secret Wars will focus on characters who don't have major roles in Doomsday. Many took that to mean that Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man or Hugh Jackman's Wolverine could step up to the plate and lead a new group of heroes. The MCU hasn't been setting the stage for that, though.
What the MCU has been aiming to do is build up a roster of young heroes who can pick up the baton when the time comes. Projects like Hawkeye, The Marvels, Thor: Love and Thunder, and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania all put a focus on the next generation, allowing the older heroes to pass down their knowledge.
If the Young Avengers don't assemble at the end of Doomsday or the start of Secret Wars, all that legwork would've been for nothing. But all signs point to the MCU taking the opportunity and running with it. And once the Young Avengers genie is out of the bottle, it's going to be hard to put it back in.
