The MCU’s Young Avengers may have finally assembled, but Marvel fans are in for a big surprise

I know, we’ve been hearing about supposed movement on the Young Avengers front since approximately *looks at watch* 2019, but as 2025 kicks into gear we might actually be getting somewhere at long last. Marvel has been taking its sweet, sweet time in bringing the next-gen heroes of the MCU together, with the Multiverse Saga so far sowing the seeds for the team’s arrival at the pace of a Celestial’s gestation (What? Does nobody Eternals?).

It’s gotten to the point that the next Avengers movie — which we all thought the Young Avengers project was supposed to act as a precursor for — is entering production before the gang of superpowered young adults has even been officially announced. With any luck, though, more concrete news will be forthcoming now that it seems the project has finally locked in its core ensemble cast. But there’s one thing about the project that fans might not be expecting.

Marvel’s Young Avengers Champions’ roster might have been revealed

According to the latest word on the street (as originated from frequently cited insider, Daniel Richtman), the heroes who will make up Marvel’s Champions have been unveiled. Yes, Champions, not Young Avengers. It seems the studio has dragged its feet so much in bringing them together that the term Young Avengers isn’t even accurate anymore. We wonder if the fact that Hailee Steinfeld recently became older than Scarlett Johansson was in The Avengers has something to do with that.

As for the reported Champions line-up, the team roster supposedly includes Iman Vellani (Ms. Marvel), the aforementioned Ms. Steinfeld (Kate Bishop), Kathryn Newton (Cassie Lang), Joe Locke (Wiccan), Dominique Thorne (Ironheart), and Xochitl Gomez (America Chavez).

All in all, this is pretty much the ensemble fans have been expecting, as other potential recruits such as She-Hulk‘s Skarr, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier‘s Eli Bradley, and Loki‘s Kid Loki sadly seem to have vanished from the face of the MCU. What’s interesting about this roster, however, is that it inverts the gender disparity of the OG Avengers. In that case, Black Widow was the only woman surrounded by five guys. Now Billy is the only guy in a mostly female team.

In Marvel Comics lore, the Champions are an alternate teen-oriented super-group from the Young Avengers, of which Ms. Marvel is a member (alongside various MCU no-shows like Amadeus Cho, Miles Morales, and Moon Girl). Given Kamala’s central role in this team, having started her own “Kid Avengers” initiative in The Marvels, it probably makes sense to go with the Champions. Besides, for those unfamiliar with the source material, Young Avengers may well have sounded a little too Muppet Babies.

With Ironheart finally premiering on Disney Plus this June 24, it seems likely that we can expect the Champions to recruit themselves a new member as soon as this summer. We’re still not entirely sure what form the project will take, but it seems like Young Avengers Champions will itself be a streaming series and not a movie.