10 Marvel Franchises That Could Replace The Avengers

6. The Ravagers

Guardians of the Galaxy 2 Ravagers original team
Marvel Studios

Though Stan Lee is the undisputed cameo king when it comes to Marvel's movies, there's no denying the genius of Guardians 2's surprise appearances.

While the films themselves took most of their inspiration from the Guardians of the 21st Century, they weren't the team's original incarnation. Despite this, Vol. 2 does pay homage to that original band of cosmic do-gooders, featuring Sylvester Stallone as Starhawk in a cursory role before bringing the original band back together in the film's emotional funeral scene. Michelle Yeoh plays Aleta Ogord, Ving Rhames appears as Charlie 27, as does the fish-like Krugarr, but most hilarious of all is Miley Cyrus, who plays Mainframe - a disembodied robotic head that looks to be a new addition to the Guardians roster.

In any case, it's doubtful that Marvel will sit on these characters for long. They're more than likely to appear in Guardians 3 and, while Stallone in particular might not possess the box-office clout he used to, he's a valuable asset for Disney going forward. If they were to make a Guardians spin-off (and let's be honest, they probably will), the Ravagers are the most obvious candidates to star.

This isn't to say that they're necessarily comparable to the Avengers either, but in bringing together the Guardians with another cosmic force, Marvel's space-operas could become their biggest draw.

Advertisement
Content Producer/Presenter

WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well. In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.