Young Avengers Appreciation 2022

[ComicNoobie]

At this point, Kate, America, Cassie, Kamala, Joaquin and Eli seem like possibilities, since all have appeared to some degree in the various shows, maybe a Kid Loki variant or this new Thor/Gor's daughter character or Riri or Morgan Stark as well. But we've seen little indication of any plan to age up Billy or Tommy any further (or bring them from another part of the multiverse), or any indication of Teddy (or Jonas) at all. But that's a *lot* of characters, and I'm wondering if Cassie might be cut as well.

Although the Marvels or Secret Invasion seem like good places for Teddy to appear, if Marvel is going to introduce him before any Young Avengers team project.

I feel like powers-that-be at Marvel would be more interested at this point in casting someone to play Miles Morales in live-action and introduce him, rather than use Billy, Tommy or Teddy.

This could very well be the case. If so then they better not call that team "Young Avengers" just call them the Champions then. The main reason fans have been speculating a Young Avengers project is so many of the founding/OG members have been popping up in the MCU. Kate Bishop, Eli Bradley, Billy and Tommy, aging up Cassie Lang with a new actress, America Chavez and even Kid Loki. These characters are actual Young Avengers affiliated with the brand name and got the fans buzzing about them. If they do a bait and switch and have half the members don't make the team then why bring them in at all? Why tease the fans like that?

As much as I like Miles Morales I don't want him on the team for two reason. The biggest one being the legal issues with Sony that could screw up storytelling if they have another breakup with Marvel Studios. Honestly Spider-characters should be handled carefully on any team they appear because of Sony. I don't want a YA team to be hindered by that dumb deal.

Yeah, that lineup I mentioned? They're listed in order of likelihood - and I'd say the first five are dead certs. Loki depends on if Kid Loki appears in the second season of his solo show, and Wiccan and Speed need to return elsewhere first but we don't know where. Agatha's show?

I'm desperately waiting for Wiccan and Speed to show up again. I'm slightly worried, but maybe I just need to be patient. Really it's Teddy/Hulkling that has me the most nervous. There are so many factors working against him in the MCU right now.

But what kinds of messed up it to introduce the whole "Bradley " family angle on screen, clear distinction of Eli, and then deliberately not include him in On screen as part of YA? I get comic writing fanboys who by and large, mostly have black male biases, but I would expect the MCU to be more open and professional about reasonable representation.

I think with Eli we just have to wait and see. His placement in the comics isn't reassuring but Falcon and the Winter Soldier did include him when they didn't have to. They didn't actually need to show Eli in the Isaiah Bradley storyline at all, and while adding him could have just been a Easter Egg, all his Young Avenger buddies (minus Teddy) have appeared and are chilling in some corner of the MCU. Almost the entire team is there so what's going on?

[Drops Of Venus]

Yeah, it's strange. They do seem to have binned off the other Patriot in the comics as Sam now only has Joaquin as a sidekick, not Rayshaun. If that wasn't to make way for Eli's return, why get rid of him?

Face it, the likely YA movie roster isn't a comic accurate one, it's probably something like Kate, America, Cassie, Kamala, Riri, Joaquin, Loki, Wiccan and Speed (which is 2/3 YA, 1/3 Champions).

I don't see Joaquin joining the team, not even by MCU standards of adaptation. He's just so different from the comics that I don't think he'll fit in any young group of heroes, not even the Champions that he's actually a part of in the comics. Turning him into a military guy puts him in a position that's too formal/serious to justify him being a part of teams that were known for questioning authority of older people, if that makes sense. Unless they're planning on militarizing the Young Avengers/Champions, which also doesn't sound like a good idea.

Also, making him replace Eli would not sit right with me at all. Erasing your black founding member whose story specifically revolves around how his family was screwed up by the US government/military and then putting an actual military dude on his place feels very wrong.

I don't know what the character has been up to in recent years, but I think he could have made a cool future member of the team. He's got the legacy Avenger part down. Probably would have gotten along well with Cassie given they both have dead father issues. Well Scott's back now, but she could sympathize with him.

He was in Asgardians Of The Galaxy more recently, but that didn't last very long. I don't think he's really appearing in anything right now, so he could be free to join the team. He was a part of Avengers Academy years ago, and I've always thought that some of the characters from there had potential to be future YA members. I'm still advocating for Lyra Walters to be the new Hulkling!

At this point, Kate, America, Cassie, Kamala, Joaquin and Eli seem like possibilities, since all have appeared to some degree in the various shows, maybe a Kid Loki variant or this new Thor/Gor's daughter character or Riri or Morgan Stark as well. But we've seen little indication of any plan to age up Billy or Tommy any further (or bring them from another part of the multiverse), or any indication of Teddy (or Jonas) at all. But that's a *lot* of characters, and I'm wondering if Cassie might be cut as well.

Although the Marvels or Secret Invasion seem like good places for Teddy to appear, if Marvel is going to introduce him before any Young Avengers team project.

I feel like powers-that-be at Marvel would be more interested at this point in casting someone to play Miles Morales in live-action and introduce him, rather than use Billy, Tommy or Teddy.

I think easter egg culture has led us to this belief that if a character isn't teased or set up beforehand, then there's no way they could appear, but that's not necessarily true. There was never any tease of Kamala Khan existing in the MCU until her show. Same goes for Jennifer Walters. Not every Young Avenger needs to be necessarily set up before a Young Avengers project. They could do a movie/show and choose to introduce characters like Wiccan and Hulkling on that production itself.

And by the way, we HAVE had evidence of (older) Billy and Teddy possibly showing up in the MCU, not through on-screen stuff, but casting calls. They cast Captain Marvel and Blade years before those characters even appeared in the MCU. So that's something to keep in mind; just because we're not seeing something play out on screen, doesn't mean it's not a part of their active plans.

Also, I don't think Miles is a bigger priority than actual Young Avengers characters simply because he's not a Disney-owned character in live-action. Putting him in the Young Avengers would mean they would be at the mercy of Sony any time they wanted to use the character, so it's less troublesome to go with a character Disney can just use with no strings attached.

If they don't include Teddy, but have Billy be there, I genuinely wonder how that press run will be lmao. Like, anyone with a lick of YA knowledge knows about them and how central they are to the team, so I'd have to wonder how hard/if at all comic book media coverage will press Marvel for excluding their "let's bring them out every Pride to show we're not homophobic" gay couple. And I just don't see how making a team known for being heavy on lgbt+ representation less so can come off as anything but bad, especially with how poor their track record is on that front.

But, I guess they can use the excuse of Vol1 being mostly straight characters with the exception of Billy, Teddy, and Tommy retroactively. But then they might include America, and vol2 was her redebut into the character she's mostly known for being, which happens to be the run that ended with everyone sans Kate being queer. So like, this is starting to seem deliberate in who they include (or better yet, who they exclude), and why certain characters are either wayyyyyy younger than they should be, or non existent at this point.

And that doesn't even touch the issue that is Eli's messy rights situation, especially with Isaiah being announced for Cap 4 New World Order. I can accept deviations when adapting, so I guess this is hypocritical of me to be so hypercritical of the MCU when it comes to YA, but it just seems they're doing it with not good intentions.

I just think it's too early to assume what their intentions are because, at this point, we don't even know if there is a Young Avengers project in the works. I sure like to think there is one, but we won't really know what they're cooking until they announce it and we have an idea of who's a part of the cast. So I'm just gonna wait and see. I'll definitely be pissed if it feels like they will change the team to make more palatable to heteronormative audiences, but I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt right now due to the lack of information.

[gonnagiveittoya]

Theres a casting call for two gay 18 year old actors as main characters for Agatha's show and its widely reported that at least one of them is Billy (though nobody is sure which)

It seems like Kamala is not going to be in it now that she's being teed up as a member of the MCU's X-Men.

I honestly think they'll either change the name to Champions for branding or they'll just call the actual project like Childrens Crusade

[Drops Of Venus]

Theres a casting call for two gay 18 year old actors as main characters for Agatha's show and its widely reported that at least one of them is Billy (though nobody is sure which)

The casting call for the Agatha show was just for one character, not two.

[gurkle]

A credible leaker this month posted (on their Patreon) a casting call for another gay character the same age; I don’t remember what else was in the description.

[ComicNoobie]

Billy possibly being in the Agatha show is really the only reason I'm interested in it. Since I doubt Wanda is revived in it, a possible debut of Billy/Wiccan is all I can hope for.

[gonnagiveittoya]

The casting call for the Agatha show was just for one character, not two.

There's a second one, a character described as a teenage athletic soccer player with a boyfriend.

[PATRICK]
Character portrayed as he/him and gay. 18-20 playing teens, any ethnicity, American, athletic build. A gentle jock, Patrick has a kind soul and a great sense of humor. He's totally in love with his
boyfriend, and he's a star on the school's soccer team. SUPPORTING.

My guess is that this one probably isn't Billy, since the other one specifies white and this one is open.

[gurkle]

If "Tyler" really does turn out to be Billy then it does sound like this could be Teddy. They were already a couple when "Young Avengers" began.

That's a big "if" obviously.

[Drops Of Venus]

A credible leaker this month posted (on their Patreon) a casting call for another gay character the same age; I don’t remember what else was in the description.

There's a second one, a character described as a teenage athletic soccer player with a boyfriend.

[PATRICK]
Character portrayed as he/him and gay. 18-20 playing teens, any ethnicity, American, athletic build. A gentle jock, Patrick has a kind soul and a great sense of humor. He's totally in love with his
boyfriend, and he's a star on the school's soccer team. SUPPORTING.

My guess is that this one probably isn't Billy, since the other one specifies white and this one is open.

OH MY GOD???? I'm not subscribed to anyone's Patreon so no wonder I didn't hear about it. I'm shocked this didn't leak to the more mainstream social media just like the other casting call (which was also posted on a Patreon) did. So this is HUGE, because the inclusion of ''Tyler'' alone didn't exactly mean much; he could've turned out to be just another original MCU character. But the fact that they're adding a second gay character who specifically has a boyfriend likely hints Tyler is getting a love interest. I feel like that's a lot of effort for a character who might not be relevant to the overall MCU, so yeah, I think it just became THAT more likely that Tyler is indeed Billy. And yes, Patrick sounds 100% like Teddy. Well, except for the soccer part, since Teddy was a basketball/football kinda guy in the comics, but that's not THAT big of a change.

And honestly, it just makes so much sense. The first time we heard about a casting call for Teddy was two years ago, and it allegedly was for WandaVision. After the pandemic so much changed, and it's possible his role there got cut as a result. But it shows that the team behind WandaVision was interested in introducing Wiccan/Hulkling, and that's the same team working on Coven Of Chaos now! Also, not sure if this is relevant and it might not even be the same insider who posted this casting call, but Charles Murphy randomly tweeted about Wiccan and Hulkling the other day, saying he couldn't wait for the day when they get cast in the MCU. I felt like it was such a weird thing for him to say because he's not usually a Young Avengers kinda guy on social media, and he also tweeted this after saying he was sitting on a lot of info that he was choosing not to share because he didn't wanna spoil things. Looking back now, it makes so much sense that he could've been hinting at those casting calls.

If "Tyler" really does turn out to be Billy then it does sound like this could be Teddy. They were already a couple when "Young Avengers" began.

That's a big "if" obviously.

It wasn't very clear when their relationship began in the original YA run, but Wiccan & Hulkling: The Last Annihilation confirmed that they only became a couple after Iron Lad had already paid them a visit (and he even walked in on their first kiss lol), so their relationship pretty much began alongside the team. If they're already deeply in love in Agatha: Coven Of Chaos, then it's gonna be much sooner than how they got together in the comics, but then again, we already got Kate and Cassie being heroes before YA is formed, so comic book chronology has been thrown out of the window for a while. lol

[9th.]

Billy possibly being in the Agatha show is really the only reason I'm interested in it. Since I doubt Wanda is revived in it, a possible debut of Billy/Wiccan is all I can hope for.

...I had no idea this was a thing now I gotta check it out too.

[Drops Of Venus]

The Agatha show potentially being a Backdoor Pilot for Young Avengers was honestly not on my bingo card. Even if Billy was on it, I would not expect such a major part of his comic book history (his relationship with Teddy) to be acknowledged. I wonder if they have any plans for Tommy in the middle of all this.

By the way, I just spent the last hour on every social media and Google trying to figure out if anyone was saying anything about this Patrick casting call, and there's literally zero talks about it. Whoever leaked this really did a good job in keeping it away from the fandom... for now. lol

[ComicNoobie]

The Agatha show potentially being a Backdoor Pilot for Young Avengers was honestly not on my bingo card. Even if Billy was on it, I would not expect such a major part of his comic book history (his relationship with Teddy) to be acknowledged. I wonder if they have any plans for Tommy in the middle of all this.

By the way, I just spent the last hour on every social media and Google trying to figure out if anyone was saying anything about this Patrick casting call, and there's literally zero talks about it. Whoever leaked this really did a good job in keeping it away from the fandom... for now. lol

Yeah, I certainly wasn't expecting Young Avenger bread crumbs to appear in Agatha. But if these leaks are true then my interest in the show has just skyrocketed. Now comes the hard part, being patient for it all.

[Drops Of Venus]

Yeah, I certainly wasn't expecting Young Avenger bread crumbs to appear in Agatha. But if these leaks are true then my interest in the show has just skyrocketed. Now comes the hard part, being patient for it all.

The good thing is that since casting is apparently happening right now (or was happening recently; the casting call for Tyler was found 3 months ago), we might not have to wait very long to find out, or at least have potential candidates for the roles. I remember that the casting of Xochitl Gomez was reported by trades just some months after the casting call for a latina girl in the Doctor Strange movie was reported online. It's possible that by the end of the year, or early next year when the show starts shooting, the trades will already have names of people who make up the main cast. And even though trades don't usually spoil the roles before Marvel officially announce them, it will be a lot easier to narrow down who they cast based on whoever is reported. Many people figured out Xochitl was America because she was the only actress announced for the movie that fit the casting call description for America. So pay attention to any late teens/early twenties actors being cast that fit the Tyler/Patrick descriptions, and we might crack the case before an official announcement is even made!

[Waking Replica]

This isn't exactly YA related, but given the information we now have thanks to gonnagiveittoya, for those watching She-Hulk, did y'all notice that unintentional fake out Easter egg? spoilers:

The one from the final scene of the latest episode, in the Intelligencia lab or whatever that had a message pop up that said HulkKing? Pretty close spelling haha.

end of spoilers

I've seen people on Twitter weirdly but sorta understandably speculate it was a Teddy tease, but given the context of that scene, its obviously not. Though I'd be livid if I didn't already know about the "Patrick" casting call for Agatha lol

[MasterOfMagnetism]

So it's really starting to sound like Teddy isn't going to be in Secret Invasion. There was a plot leak of The Marvels (pre re-shoots mind you) and he wasn't in that either, and he's allegedly going to be introduced in the Agatha show with Billy. So.... is he even going to be a Kree/Skrull? What are the odds they retcon him into being a mutant like they did to Kamala?

I'll also admit seeing "HulkKing" in She-Hulk gave me a mini-heart attack, lol.