As fans ponder, "Where are the Avengers?," Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige revealed an update as hits theaters Captain America: Brave New World.
The MCU's Mightiest Heroes formed in 2012's The Avengers and were active as a team until 2016's Captain America: Civil War. While the heroes came together once again in Infinity War and Endgame to defeat Thanos, the team has not been active officially in the MCU for almost a decade.
Marvel Boss Explains the Avengers' Current MCU Status
In an official press release for Captain America: Brave New World shared by Disney, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige offered an update on the status of the Avengers in 2025's MCU, confirming they are, unfortunately, "not currently active:"
"In 'Captain America: Brave New World' Sam Wilson is Captain America, and he has made the decision to unabashedly become Captain America. But what does it mean to be Captain America when you’re not a super soldier, which we definitively know Sam Wilson is not, and in a world where the Avengers are not currently active?"
Going back to 2021 as Phase 4 was first getting underway, Feige addressed the current status of the Avengers, saying that uncovering those details would be an "undercurrent" of upcoming projects. That said, the Multiverse Saga has maintained some vagueness regarding the team's post-Endgame fate.
Director Julius Onah continued to discuss Sam Wilson's journey in Brave New World where he must "negotiate what that actually means" to be Captain America and how he will "use the power that the platform gives him:"
"As the film begins, Sam has been Captain America for a while, and that is a big part of what drew me to wanting to direct this movie. We left Sam at the end of 'The Falcon and The Winter Soldier' knowing why he wanted to be Captain America, but now we’re meeting him at a place where he has to negotiate what that actually means, what course of action he’s going to take, how he’s going to relate to other people, and how he’s going use the power that the platform gives him. A big part of what he’s going through in this movie is trying to define that in a really specific way."
Marvel Studios recently shared a clip from Captain America 4 where President Ross asks Sam Wilson to "help [him] rebuild the Avengers."
Going back several years in the MCU, Ross was once opposed to the Avengers and other enhanced individuals after helping pass the Sokovia Accords in Captain America: Civil War that tore Earth's Mightiest Heroes apart.
Having been elected president, Ross explained he "[represents] all Americans now" and "the country needs [the Avengers]." Just as Ross has gone through a change of face (find out his recast and new Red Hulk role), Thanos' Snap and other events have prompted a change of heart about the Avengers.
Does Captain America 4 Set Up the MCU's New Avengers?
Brave New World, first and foremost, is a Sam Wilson story that puts him toe-to-toe with a global conspiracy, the U.S. government, and Thunderbolt Ross' Red Hulk. As such, despite references to rebuilding the Avengers, fans should not have expected any other Avengers heroes to feature aside from Danny Ramirez's replacement Falcon.
Regardless, the threats he faces in Captain America 4 - particularly The Leader, who does hint at a multiversal threat in the film's post-credits scene - could prompt Wilson to start putting together an updated team of heroes ahead of Avengers: Doomsday.
One has to wonder if Wilson being the one to start rebuilding the Avengers could set him up as the one to lead them in 2026. After all, during an interview with The Movie Report, producer Nate Moore pointed out "there's never been an Avengers movie where there's not a Captain America at the center of it," seemingly pointing toward his major role in Doomsday.
Captain America: Brave New World is now playing in theaters, and Avengers: Doomsday is set to release in May 2026.
