Disney and Marvel appear to have been busy planting all of these seeds…
It turns out that there has been quite the reaction to the arrival of two new characters in Disney+’s second episode of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and both for wildly different reasons.
First up, there has been a (rather narrow-minded) backlash to the arrival of Isaiah Bradley (played by Carl Lumbly), who some believe waters-down the backstory of Steve Rogers.
On the latest episode of TBR Spotlight: The Falcon and the Winter Solider [LISTEN from 17.52 below] Rory and Eoghan break down the history of Isaiah’s character in the comics, and whether or not the show will give us his full background:
However, in that same scene that introduced us to Isaiah, we were also introduced to another character, who we don’t learn the name of until the end credits: Eli Bradley, the grandson of Isaiah.
Eli (played by Elijah Richardson) doesn’t have much to do in this scene, other than react to his grandfather’s sudden burst of anger and display of power.
In the comics, Eli is better known as Patriot, who (depending on which comic book history you’re following) receives his super strength powers after a blood transfusion from his grandfather.
The reason why Eli’s introduction is so interesting is because it appears that Disney+ and Marvel are working away at setting up The Young Avengers, which could very well prove to be the fifth Avengers movies.
Again, different iterations of The Young Avengers exist in different comic books, but primarily, they’ve been known to consist of the following:
Patriot – who we’ve now met in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier
Wiccan – the son of Wanda and Vision, introduced in WandaVision
Speed – ditto
Hawkeye – the younger version will be played by Hailee Steinfeld, taking up the mantle of the original (Jeremy Renner) in the Disney+ show due for release in Late 2021
Stature – the character of Cassie Lang (aka Ant-Man’s daughter) will be played by Kathryn Newton in 2022’s Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania
Miss America – the teleporting alien teenager America Chavez will be played by Xochitl Gomez in 2022’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
There are, of course, even more characters on the upcoming Disney+ and big-screen MCU roster that could be added to this list – Ms. Marvel, for example, and we’re sure Loki will reveal some more during its run this June – but for now, it does appear that Marvel are working away in the background at setting up the replacements for the current Avengers crew.
With so many of them having bowed out at the tail-end of Avengers: Endgame, it makes sense that they’d want to start recruiting the next line-up as soon as possible.
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