Marvel Studios is attempting another two-part Avengers event with “Avengers: The Kang Dynasty” coming from director Destin Daniel Cretton (“Shang-Chi,” “Wonder Man”), and “Avengers: Secret Wars” is currently without a director (That will change in the near future). The latter film has slowly turned into an extremely uninspired reason for fans online to speculate on the avalanche of variants/cameos that may show up in “Secret Wars” from actors who nearly played roles or brought old ones back. Marvel already did this with “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” “Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness” and is expected to do the same with “Deadpool 3” using various Foxverse actors before an assumed reset of the franchise ahead of the “X-Men” and “Fantastic Four” reboots.

A fourth attempt to cram in variants or toothless actor cameos in such a bigger film than those would sort of feel like recycling something they’ve already done too often. It would be so much more compelling if they instead used characters that specifically could be used for the next two “Avengers” films that make sense and aren’t just an extended piece of fan service with a movie’s runtime. I’m not sure having a bunch of random actors/variants that won’t really contribute to the story/plot/character development will actually do very much to propel the film other than play out some action-figure dreams of a niche group of fans that just want to see things appear rather than think about how it would actually improve things.

Now, how do you try to outdo a villainous threat like Thanos and The Black Order after they instituted the Infinity Gauntlet, the snap killing half the universe as a cliffhanger, and time travel? Thanos wasn’t just solo in those films as The Black Order or The Children of Thanos did minion work for him in “Avengers: Infinity War” and returned for the climax action sequence at the end of “Avengers: Endgame.” It would have been nice if they had more character depth to them though beyond alien henchmen.

Marvel is under the impression that the Multiverse and Kang The Conqueror will still be engaging enough with audiences to get the excitement levels growing in the next two event films.

I think people were genuinely excited when a Kang variant was introduced in the first season of “Loki” and that character attempted to foreshadow the doom and gloom of unleashing his more dangerous variants with his death. However, Marvel seemed to undercut that promising threat with the wishy-washy audience reaction to Kang being the main villain of “Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania.” This might signal that they’ll need something more to make Kang a bit more compelling/threatening when we’re talking about him going after the entire team roster after tangling with one of the less powerful heroes. It seemed like a big miscalculation on Marvel’s part and exposed that their new event-level villain might need help beyond his horde of variants (I don’t know how compelling this angle is going to be).

Thankfully, Kang has access to the endless possibilities of the Multiverse and other points in time, making him able to assemble his own competing team that could cause extra trouble for The Avengers if need be.

He’s connected to a team that might be worth exploring on the big screen and that would be The Squadron Supreme (I’ve been campaigning for their MCU debut for many years now). A group of characters mirroring DC Comics’ Justice League that were introduced in Avengers comics as The Squadron Sinister, back in 1969, and originate from the Multiverse being from Earth-712. Making them a way more sensible narrative choice than overloading a film with variants of existing characters. Of course, the Multiverse would have a team that could go toe-to-toe with The Avengers and potentially kill some of them in the process. They were first put together by Jeff Goldblum’s The Grandmaster to combat Kang’s champions (The Avengers), however, the MCU incarnation would most likely see Kang being that puppet master or could easily be the team that fills the void of The Illuminati on Earth-838 after Scarlet Witch killed them. I first mentioned Earth-838 potentially becoming a threat to the main MCU universe last year after seeing “Doctor Strange 2” and theorized Baron Mordo gathering a new team or unleashing something as destructive as Dormammu against that universe to avoid any future murderous encroachments from those inhabitants.

That lineup of Squadron members consists of Mark Milton aka Hyperion (Superman proxy that is an Eternal), Zarda aka The Power Princess (Wonder Woman proxy that is sort of a Multiverse version of an Inhuman as the Utopians were another Kree experiment), Kyle Richmond aka Nighthawk (Batman proxy that became a member of The Defenders) Kenji Obatu aka Doctor Spectrum (Green Lantern proxy), Kingsley Rice aka Amphibian (Aquaman proxy), Skymax aka The Skrullian Skymaster (Martian Manhunter proxy that is a heroic Skrull), Stanley Stewart aka Blur (Flash proxy), Acranna (Zatanna proxy), Wyatt McDonald aka Golden Archer (Green Arrow proxy), Linda Lewis aka Lady Lark (Black Canary proxy), Thomas Thompson aka Tom Thumb (Atom proxy), and Thundra (Femizon from Earth-715 that was introduced in the pages of Fantastic Four as part of the Frightful Four).

Seeing Earth-838 taking revenge or aligning themselves with Kang to see two different universes going to war is another way this could go. Potentially taking place on a version of Battleworld (an abandoned alien world could be fun) to avoid any major collateral damage on their versions of Earth, the losers seeing their universe essentially erased from existence could make for good stakes (“Loki” has established the pruning method). Folks have also talked up the potential of DC Studios and Marvel Studios coming together for a massive Marvel/DC crossover film in the future…since that feels like a decade away using The Squadron Supreme against The Avengers could be a nice substitute to that idea.

Marvel would have a chance to establish The Squadron as a much more deadly group than The Illuminati by having them possibly kill a handful of members in their first skirmish or at least put a serious beating on them as they sort of first reunite since the events of “Endgame.” I don’t think we’re going to see them be as cohesive as they once were and might have to step up a bit over the two films.

I wouldn’t be that terribly shocked if they attempted to beef up the roster by replacing some of the less exciting Justice League proxies with members of The Agents of Atlas since they’ve sort of altered the lineup in more recent comics allowing for some of the older members to potentially make the jump to the Squadron.

It’s a Marvel team featuring some extremely old/obscure comic characters that pre-date the Avengers and even the main Marvel brand. Making them perfect fodder for a Multiverse team being put together by Kang.

Led by a very different incarnation of Agent Jimmy Woo (1956) than we’ve been introduced to in the MCU and also features Namora (1947) last seen in “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.” Some of those other members that could be added to The Squadron Supreme include Kenneth Hale aka Gorilla-Man (1954), M-11 aka Human Robot, Venus (1948), Robert Grayson aka Marvel Boy/Uranian (1950), Chuck Chandler aka 3-D Man (1977), and their pal Jane Hastings aka Jann of The Jungle (1954).

The first incarnation of the team appeared in a What-If…? issue published in 1977 that explored the idea of what The Avengers would have looked like if they had been formed in the 1950s instead of the 1960s.

Having The Squadron Supreme as the main formidable obstacle for this new version of The Avengers, which will have to endure without the likes of Steve Rogers, Tony Stark, Natasha Romanoff, and potentially more fallen heroes feels slightly more menacing than simply having Kang variants overwhelm them or have to kill/defeat them one-by-one. There would be a little more complexity with pulling from Squadron/Atlas since they wouldn’t simply be variants like with the Illuminati and could have their own unique power sets alongside character designs that would move beyond simply the variants of existing Marvel heroes/villains.

I’m not really going to get into the current speculation/rumblings about where/when the Squadron could be showing up. But it is worth mentioning it was once rumored they’d first appear in Season 1 of “Loki” and that never happened, so always take unconfirmed rumblings with a pinch grain of salt. Possibly more of that rumor/guessing is going to keep happening until their involvement is actually confirmed by the studio but, to me, the most sense is when The Avengers have to combat a Multiverse threat like Kang.

We have to assume that things like “The Marvels,” “Captain America: Brave New World,” “Deadpool 3,” “Armor Wars,” and “Loki” Season 2 might give us a better sense of what to expect from these next two “Avengers” movies.