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Credit: Marvel StudiosMarvel Studios has reportedly abandoned plans for a theatrical Young Avengers project – but it has a new idea in mind.
It’s no secret that the past few years have been rough for Marvel at the box office. While there’s been the odd exception, such as Deadpool & Wolverine (2024), multiple efforts have failed to impress both fans and critics, with revenue dropping as a result.
Considering the fact that the studio was on a high just five years ago with Avengers: Endgame (2019), some have questioned how the franchise fell so far in such a short space of time. Fingers are most commonly pointed at the studio’s increasing output, with Disney+ adding a whole new stream of content to the MCU, making it much more laborious for fans to keep up to date with the storyline.
Disney CEO Bob Iger has confirmed plans for Marvel to focus on quality over quantity from now on, and we’ve already seen that new ethos in action.
Some projects have been quietly scrapped from the Marvel lineup, while others have undergone massive amounts of work to bring them up to scratch, such as Daredevil: Born Again and Captain America: Brave New World (2025), both of which have undergone massive reshoots and rewrites.
One project that’s apparently been axed during this process is Young Avengers.
For a long time, it seemed like the MCU was building toward a big-screen team-up of its youngest players, such as Kamala Khan/Ms. Marvel (Iman Vellani), Kate Bishop/Hawkeye (Hailee Steinfeld), and Cassie Lang/Stature (Kathryn Newton).
The ending of The Marvels (2023) even saw Ms. Marvel and Hawkeye missing for the first time while teasing the idea of building a larger superhero group, à la Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson).
However, YouTuber Kristian Harloff now claims that Marvel has dropped that idea and is instead developing a TV show equivalent that will be named “Champions.”
“I am hearing that this is as show,” Harloff said. “It’s a full-on show that they’re going to do. What I’m hearing again is that this is going to be a show, and we’re going to get the people that [are] the two main stars that you know – with Hailee Steinfeld and Iman Vellani – we’re going to get them. I don’t know how many episodes. I would assume limited. That’s what I heard as far as those things go.”
This news comes a year on from Marvel’s biggest flop of all time. While we’d argue that The Marvels was a fun adventure, the kind that the MCU desperately needs, not everybody appreciated it in the right way.
The film lost Marvel $200 million at the box office, with many taking that as a sign that female leads don’t generate the same box office pull as Marvel’s male counterparts. (We’ll save our argument against that for another day).
Ultimately, money is the biggest motivation for any decision at Marvel. Based on the numbers alone, Marvel’s female-led team-ups aren’t providing the box office hype they need nowadays.
While Young Avengers may have a handful of male members, it’s a very female-heavy group—which is why we wouldn’t be totally shocked if Marvel has indeed lost faith in its big screen potential and shafted the idea to Disney+ instead.
Kamala Khan, you deserve the world – we just hope Marvel finds a way to give it to you.
Do you think Disney should make a big-screen Young Avengers project?