I can’t believe Marvel Studios only showed the brand-new Avengers team from the end of Avengers: Age of Ultron in action in the MCU for just ten minutes. I recently rewatched The Avengers and Avengers: Age of Ultron, wanting to get the nostalgia of seeing the original superhero team of the MCU in action before the group is revamped in the Russo brothers’ upcoming Doomsday and Secret Wars. The original six heroes formed the perfect line-up for the first Avengers team, and Marvel even debuted a brilliant successor, but this new team was completely wasted.

Avengers: Age of Ultron was the sophomore adventure for the тιтular team on-screen in the MCU, as they came together to take down the remnants of HYDRA and, later, battle the tyrannical artificial intelligence, Ultron. Ultron hoped to eradicate humanity by dropping Sokovia’s capital city like a meteor, repeating the process that wiped out the dinosaurs. After the Avengers succeeded in stopping the robot, the original team disbanded, and an exciting new line-up was introduced, only to be all but ignored in the MCU’s subsequent crossover movies.

Avengers: Age Of Ultron Introduced A Powerful Line-Up For The New Avengers Team

Age Of Ultron Ended By Debuting A New Avengers Line-Up

Following the battle against Ultron in Sokovia, Bruce Banner’s Hulk self-exiled himself to Sakaar, Thor set out to find the Infinity Stones, Clint Barton’s Hawkeye retired to spend more time with his family and Tony Stark’s Iron Man planned to also cut down on his superhero career. This left only Steve Rogers’ Captain America and Natasha Romanoff’s Black Widow from the original Avengers roster, but they weren’t alone for long. Avengers: Age of Ultron ended with a new Avengers team being introduced, and I was very excited about this new line-up.

Alongside Captain America and Black Widow, who became mentors and trainers to the new team, Age of Ultron’s Avengers team comprised James “Rhodey” Rhodes’ War Machine, Sam Wilson’s Falcon, Wanda Maximoff’s Scarlet Witch and Vision. This team was confirmed to be an official version of the Avengers by Captain America almost delivering his iconic “Avengers ᴀssemble” line – we had to wait till Endgame for this to come to fruition. Unfortunately, I don’t feel as though we got enough time with this new team, and I’m sad that it was forgotten by Marvel Studios.

I Would Have Loved An Avengers Movie Focused On Age Of Ultron’s Team To Develop Them Better

Captain America: Civil War Wasn’t Enough Time With This New Team

I really wanted to see a full Avengers movie featuring Age of Ultron’s final incarnation of the team. Instead, all Marvel Studios gave us was a ten-minute-long scene in the opening of 2016’s Captain America: Civil War. Civil War might have opened with the new Avengers team – except for Vision and War Machine – in action, fighting Crossbones in Lagos, but the rest of the Phase 3 movie included every member of the Avengers, bar Thor and the Hulk, new and old. I wish we had more from Age of Ultron’s new team.

Ten minutes was not enough time to give this team any significant amount of development, but I think it would have been brilliant to see Captain America, Black Widow, War Machine, Vision, the Scarlet Witch and the Falcon team up for a bigger adventure than just taking on Crossbones and his goons. Most of these heroes have seen ample development in the years since Age of Ultron and Civil War, but I would have loved to have seen them become main characters long before the MCU’s Multiverse Saga, and a dedicated Avengers movie could have accomplished that.

Age Of Ultron’s Avengers Team Was The Perfect Successor To The Original Avengers

The Original Avengers Team Still Hasn’t Had A Real Successor

I consider it a huge shame that this new Avengers team didn’t get more attention, as it was a remarkably strong line-up, perhaps making this team the perfect successor to the original Avengers from the MCU’s Phase 1. The Avengers first came together in 2012 under Nick Fury’s watchful eye to battle Loki on the streets and in the skies of New York City. The new line-up seen in Age of Ultron packed even more of a powerful punch than the original, with the likes of Vision and the Scarlet Witch being two of the MCU’s most formidable heroes.

Because of this, and because of the lack of focus then given to Rhodey’s War Machine and Sam Wilson’s Falcon, these heroes deserved more time to grow and learn as a team. Some of their abilities were very unpredictable, and their team-working skills still leave something to be desired, so they would all have benefited from being trained by veteran Avengers and pitted against a much more significant foe. Marvel Studios still hasn’t introduced a real replacement for the original Avengers team, so it’s a shame this group didn’t get more time in the spotlight.

Most Of The New Avengers Members Have Been Explored In Recent Solo Projects (But 1 Hasn’t Been So Lucky)

War Machine Still Hasn’t Been Developed Enough In The MCU

While Captain America: Civil War didn’t give this new team the attention it deserved, its members have recently become much more important to the MCU. Wanda Maximoff and Vision were focused on in 2021’s WandaVision series, which saw Maximoff embrace her idenтιтy as the Scarlet Witch and become incredibly powerful, leading to her villainous turn in 2022, while Vision was reborn as White Vision, who will return in an upcoming solo series next year, Vision Quest. Sam Wilson has also undergone this treatment, becoming Captain America in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and getting his own solo movie.

Not everyone has been so lucky, however, as Don Cheadle still hasn’t reprised the role of War Machine in his proposed Armor Wars project. Armor Wars was confirmed to be a movie in September 2022, but we haven’t heard anything about it since then, so I’m worried it might be canceled altogether. I feel sorry for War Machine, especially after Secret Invasion, so him getting more development after Avengers: Age of Ultron​​​​​​​ was essential, and it’s a shame this didn’t happen. Of course, Rhodey could be included in the MCU’s upcoming Avengers team, which might redeem this history.

Upcoming MCU Movies

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  Thunderbolts*

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  May 2, 2025
  

  
  
  
  

  
  

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  The Fantastic Four: First Steps

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  July 25, 2025
  

  
  
  
  

  
  

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  Avengers: Doomsday (2026)

  
  
  
  
  

  
  

  
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  MCU Spider-Man 4

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  July 24, 2026
  

  
  
  
  

  
  

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  Avengers: Secret Wars

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  May 7, 2027
  

  
  
  
  

  
  

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