10 HUGE Problems Facing The Future Of The MCU
8. Filling The Void Left By Tony Stark & Steve Rogers
Though Avengers: Endgame didn't see the entire O.G. cast take their leave, it did see the departures of the two most popular frontline Avengers - Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) and Steve Rogers (Chris Evans).
With Tony dying a sacrificial hero's death, Steve returning to his original timeline, and Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) also being killed off, that left a major void in the legacy Avengers line-up.
Plus, with Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) being a part-timer supporting character and Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) being everyone's least-favourite O.G. Avenger, the only full-timer left with his own series of movies was Thor (Chris Hemsworth).
As such, it was a given that Kevin Feige would soon start building up a new superhero supergroup, yet almost four years removed from Endgame, does anyone feel good about that?
While Spider-Man (Tom Holland) and Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) are popular enough, they're not quite Tony Stark or Steve Rogers.
And when you consider other departing Avengers - T'Challa's (Chadwick Boseman) untimely death and the Guardians of the Galaxy seemingly being on their way out - it does rather feel like the MCU has a serious personnel problem.
This isn't to say that many of the new characters like Shang-Chi (Simu Liu) aren't fun and interesting, but Tony and Steve were truly on an entirely different level - brilliantly defined characters who even the most casual MCU fan knew inside-out.
Again, it perhaps speaks to Kevin Feige and co. struggling to replicate the success of the Infinity Saga, but Robert Downey Jr. and Chris Evans were in many ways the secret sauce that has felt sorely lacking ever since they left.