The MCU’s Avengers Are About to Get Much Bigger (& That’s Only Half the Problem)

The Avengers have come a long way since six heroes first teamed up to stop Loki in New York. Back then, Marvel could fit its biggest characters around one table and still give everyone something to do. Now, the MCU has heroes from different universes, characters who have barely met, and a multiverse that’s become a major part of the story. Seeing them all share the screen sounds like a dream for Marvel fans.

But there’s a catch. The bigger the team gets, the harder it becomes to make every character count. Unfortunately, Marvel has never come out with an official list documenting the Avengers’ team roster. By my count, there are probably around 15–20 different characters who have been associated with the team. Technically, fighting alongside the team doesn’t count, but there are still too many. And with the MCU’s next Avengers movies facing threats that go far beyond a simple invasion, Marvel has a lot more to worry about than finding room for everyone in the same shot.

The Avengers Have Never Been This Big (& That’s a Problem)

Remember when the first Avengers movie brought the team together? There were only six heroes, and half of them couldn’t stand each other. Tony Stark kept getting under Steve Rogers’ skin. Thor had his own family drama to deal with. And Bruce Banner was still trying to keep the Hulk under control. It worked because everyone had a reason to be there. Even Hawkeye and Black Widow got their moments, despite not having superpowers or fancy armor. Marvel took its time building up these characters before throwing them into the same movie. That made the team-up feel special. By the time Avengers: Endgame arrived, the roster had grown considerably. The final battle was packed with heroes, and seeing Captain America pick up Mjolnir was one of those moments fans had been waiting years to see. But there’s a reason that scene worked so well. We’d spent years getting to know Steve, and the movie gave his big moment room to breathe.

The next Avengers movie has to do a lot. The Fantastic Four are joining the MCU, while the X-Men are waiting in the wings, for starters. And the multiverse gives Marvel an excuse to bring back just about anyone. It can be very interesting, especially for fans who grew up reading crossover comics like Secret Wars. But those stories also show how difficult it is to manage a huge cast. Someone invariably gets pushed aside. Marvel can’t give every hero ten minutes of screen time and expect the movie to work. And let’s be honest, nobody wants to watch their favorite character spend three hours standing in the background. Endgame got away with a massive roster because it was the payoff to more than a decade of storytelling. The next movies have to do more than recreate that final battle with a few extra faces. They need to give these characters a reason to be there in the first place.

The Avengers Have Never Faced a Threat This Complicated

Thanos was an evil villain, no doubt about it. He wanted the Infinity Stones so he could wipe out half of existence, and the Avengers had to stop him. The comics explored “The Mad Titan” and his evil plot in even greater depth, but his character wasn’t fully realized in the MCU. And the multiverse is a different story. Loki introduced branching timelines and the chaos that followed. Spider-Man: No Way Home brought three versions of Peter Parker together. Then, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness explored the danger of incursions. Each movie had its own rules, and keeping track of them hasn’t always been easy. Now imagine trying to explain all of that while introducing a massive team of heroes and a villain who could threaten reality itself. Marvel fans might love digging through every little detail, but not everyone has watched every Disney+ series. The story still needs to make sense to someone who just wants to see the Avengers save the day.

The comics have already shown Marvel how to handle a story this big. Jonathan Hickman’s Secret Wars is a good example. It brought together different universes and put Doctor Doom at the center of a conflict that threatened everything. Doom wasn’t just another bad guy looking to blow up the world. He genuinely believed he could save it, even if that meant taking control of everything himself. That’s a much more interesting setup than giving the Avengers another villain who’s simply more powerful than the last one. Marvel needs a conflict that feels personal, even when the stakes involve entire universes. Infinity War understood this. Thanos had a clear goal, and the heroes had plenty of reasons to stop him. The multiverse saga has introduced some fascinating ideas, but now Marvel needs to bring them together. It has the characters, the comics, and decades of stories to draw from. The trick is making all of that work without turning the next Avengers movie into a three-hour history lesson. A bigger team and a bigger villain might look great on paper. What matters is whether there’s a good story underneath it all.

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