Age Of Ultron Already Made Avengers 5’s Biggest Challenge Harder

Marvel Studios’ Avengers: Age of Ultron has already made its biggest Avengers 5 challenge for MCU Phase 4 much harder. On the heels of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes’ first assembly in 2012’s The Avengers, the team came back together to fight the corrupted AI in Ultron (voiced by James Spader). While another box office wins for the franchise, Avengers: Age of Ultron wasn’t as well-received as its predecessor. In hindsight, however, it is arguably one of the most pivotal junctions in the Infinity Saga.

Nick Fury’s (Samuel L. Jackson) spearheaded the Avengers Initiative, where he brought together six carefully handpicked superheroes to deal with Loki’s (Tom Hiddleston) threat. Avengers: Age of Ultron picked up two years after the Battle of New York with all original members of the squad wrapping up loose ends with regard to HYDRA’s stolen Mind Stone. By the end of the 2015 blockbuster, however, Marvel Studios debuted a revamped Avengers roster with Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen), Vision (Paul Bettany), Falcon (Anthony Mackie), and War Machine (Don Cheadle), with Captain America (Chris Evans) and Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) leading the operations.

After Avengers: Age of Ultron, the new Avengers’ next outing was the Lagos mission in Captain America: Civil War. Since it went awry, resulting in the introduction of the Sokovia Accords, this specific team never got the chance to go on another adventure again on their own. This highlights just how tricky it is to establish another Avengers team, which is Marvel Studios’ biggest challenge for establishing a new team for Avengers 5. With three of the original Avengers no longer active in the MCU and no clear roster left after Avengers: Endgame, it’s currently uncertain who will be actual members of this new generation of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. Beyond the lineup, however, it’s more difficult to make sure that viewers will immediately be invested in them the same way audiences backed up the original Avengers line-up right away when they first assembled in The Avengers.

The new Avengers debuted at the end of Avengers: Age of Ultron didn’t really get the chance to go on missions that would have endeared them as a unit to the audience, and the lack of recognition of their previous existence proves that they never really made an impact on the public. That doesn’t mean that they’re not beloved individually, however, as each member of the new Avengers squad has their respective fan base. What’s interesting is that most of the lineup in the second generation of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes remain active in the MCU and some of them, if not all, will more likely end up in the Phase 4 version of the superhero squad. This time, however, they won’t have Captain America or Black Widow to spearhead their operations. If anything, the new roster will feature even fresher faces in the universe, like Shang-Chi (Simu Liu) and Captain Marvel (Brie Larson).

Recently, Kevin Feige claimed that Avengers: Endgame may be the final Earth’s Mightiest Heroes-led film. Currently, there are no plans for Avengers 5. That being said, re-assembling the Avengers seems inevitable, given it works as a through line for the MCU itself to use to keep the franchise cohesive. Hopefully, by then, Marvel Studios has already figured out a way to effectively sell its new Phase 4 roster and learn from its mistakes in Avengers: Age of Ultron.