The MCU did an amazing job laying the groundwork for the original Avengers, allowing for a meticulous, multi-phase introduction of its key players. It is now attempting the same feat for its next major assembly: the Young Avengers. The pieces are all in place, from Kate Bishop’s Hawkeye to Kamala Khan’s Ms. Marvel, but the very mechanism that made the first team a success, the slow and steady rollout, created a ticking clock that threatens the entire concept of a Young Avengers: the actors are simply getting too old to be "Young."
Marvel Studios’ notoriously deliberate production pace is accelerating the age discrepancy between these talented actors and their characters, inching them past the point where the moniker "Young Avengers" is believable. Suppose the studio does not pivot and fast-track this team-up. In that case, it risks suffering a highly visible, almost universally mocked continuity crisis, one that Netflix’s flagship series Stranger Things already struggled to manage.
The MCU’s Growing Young Avengers Problem
Since the conclusion of the Infinity Saga, the MCU has systematically introduced the core members of the future Young Avengers team. This has been a scattering of character debuts across various films and Disney+ series, starting as early as WandaVision in 2021 and continuing through 2023's The Marvels and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.
The current roster includes:
- Hailee Steinfeld as Kate Bishop/Hawkeye (age 28): The sharp-shooting successor to Clint Barton, introduced in Hawkeye
- Iman Vellani as Kamala Khan/Ms. Marvel (age 23): The superfan turned hero, who debuted in her own series and became a key part of The Marvels.
- Kathryn Newton as Cassie Lang/Stature (age 28): Scott Lang’s daughter, who grew into a capable hero after the Blip and appeared in Quantumania
- Xochitl Gomez as America Chavez/Miss America (age 19): The interdimensional traveler with the power to punch star-shaped portals, introduced in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
- Joe Locke and Ruaridh Mollica as Billy & Tommy Maximoff/Wiccan & Speed (ages 22 and 26, respectively): The magically-created sons of the Scarlet Witch, who were last seen as young boys in WandaVision and Multiverse of Madness
- Dominique Thorne as Ironheart/Riri Williams (Age 27): MIT tech genius capable of building her own Iron Man suit, and after her Ironheart series, even has some knowledge of the mystic arts
- Wil Deusner as Skaar (Age 22): Hulk's son that he had on the planet Sakaar sometime before the events of Thor Ragnarok
Each introduction has been a celebrated moment, yet the cumulative effect of the studio's phase-long strategy is alarming when measured against the calendar. As of late 2025, two of the team's most central figures are quickly approaching their third decade.
Hailee Steinfeld and Kathryn Newton are both 28 years old, and Dominique Thorne is not much younger at 27. While they are certainly still young, playing characters who are ostensibly meant to be in their early twenties, or even teenagers (like the pre-Blip Cassie Lang), becomes a stretch the longer the team-up movie is delayed.
To put this in perspective, if a dedicated Young Avengers project or the Disney+ show Champions is not released until, say, 2028 (a plausible timeline given Marvel’s current slate of pre-announced films and the necessary production cycles), both Steinfeld and Newton would be 31 years old.
Wil Deusner's Hulk character, Skaar, is entirely CGI, so he could continue playing the younger Hulk character for as long as he wants to.
The core cinematic theme of a new, younger generation stepping into the shoes of their predecessors fundamentally loses its weight when the "junior" heroes are already older than Black Widow was when she appeared in Iron Man 2 (Scarlett Johansson was even 25 at the time playing a mature hero). For a team defined by the word "Young," time is their greatest villain.
How Soon Can Marvel Unite the Young Avengers?
The current timeline suggests that the Young Avengers' formal assembly is no longer a question of if but when they can be shoehorned into the existing Avengers crossover films.
The most likely scenario is that the Young Avengers will be thrust into the MCU's current overarching crisis sooner than a dedicated solo project. The Young Avengers were reportedly supposed to debut their team-up in the now-retitled Avengers: The Kang Dynasty. Loki creator Michael Waldron even teased a scrapped idea where the Young Avengers would defeat a minor Kang variant in that film, only to learn he was a low-level rookie.
Following the firing of Jonathan Majors, the event film was retitled Avengers: Doomsday. With Doctor Doom expected to be the central antagonist, Marvel may utilize the assembled young heroes as part of the ensemble fighting force against the villain. The Young Avengers may feature in some capacity in Avengers: Doomsday but are likely to play a more prominent role in Avengers: Secret Wars.
Geraldo Amartey is a writer at The Direct. He joined the team in 2025, bringing with him four years of experience covering entertainment news, pop culture, and fan-favorite franchises for sites like YEN, Briefly and Tuko.
