Avengers 5 is a ways off, but there may be a Marvel team-up before then…

We’re not getting a sequel to Avengers: Endgame in Phase 4 of the MCU, but that doesn’t mean the Marvel heroes can’t team up. The rumor mill is churning…

The Marvel Cinematic Universe has more or less planned out its Phase 4, even if many of the films that fall into this chapter have been delayed multiple times already. But one thing that’s noticeably missing from the franchise’s lineup is a fifth Avengers film, which has led fans to assume they might not see their favorite heroes come together again for a while. And after a massive climax like Avengers: Endgame, it makes sense that the franchise would want to introduce new heroes and build individual stories before diving into the next major collaboration.

But that doesn’t mean we won’t see some mini-team-ups throughout Phase 4, or early on in Phase 5. In fact, recent reports suggest that Captain Marvel 2 could serve as a “mini-Avengers movie.” It’s rumored that the sequel, which is currently slated to arrive in July 2022, will feature a number of other heroes from the MCU — much like Captain America: Civil War did, even if it was technically a Captain America sequel. But if you didn’t already know that, would you pick it up from scenes like this?

And although there’s been no confirmation of such reports from the powers that be over at Marvel, it would make sense for this film to serve as an entry to larger-level Avengers films. After all, we’ve already met Captain Marvel and heard her origin story, so it’s not as though the inclusion of other heroes would take attention away from that.

The film also seems to be in the perfect place on the timeline for such a team-up. The earlier Phase 4 films, like The Eternals and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, will be too busy establishing new characters and storylines to have multiple heroes mixing things up. And the television series planned for Phase 4 will also need to lay a lot of groundwork for the future, especially The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, which will establish a normal normal for Captain America.

By the time we get to 2022, however, Marvel fans will have a good idea of who’s calling the shots, and of where the story is headed. We don’t actually know if Captain Marvel 2 is coming late in Phase 4 or early in Phase 5, which makes sense, if it’s going to serve as a kind of bridge to another part of the story.

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