Are The MCU Young Avengers Being Set Up To Battle Aubrey Plaza's Death?

Fans have been eagerly awaiting the debut of a Young Avengers team in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and now the pieces seem to be coming together. The team, likely to be an amalgamation of the Young Avengers and Champions line ups, currently looks set to be headed up by Kamala Khan, aka Ms. Marvel. Kamala was last seen attempting to recruit Kate Bishop in the final scene of The Marvels, and an Easter Egg in Daredevil: Born Again has her Father, Yusuf, reference her as visiting San Francisco, possibly to recruit Cassie Lang, the daughter of Ant-Man. Riri Williams, America Chavez, and Billy Maximoff/William Kaplan (Wiccan) will most likely be part of the team as well, along with Tommy Maximoff/Speed, after his rumoured return in Vision Quest.

Leaked concept art suggests that the team could debut as soon as Avengers: Doomsday or Secret Wars, but given the relatively short amount of time left, in production terms, a focus project for the Young Avengers probably won't happen until after those films. Still, with the team seeming to come together, thoughts have turned towards who their first enemy may be.. and given recent events in Ironheart, some fans believe they may have settled on an unlikely prospect.

All Roads Lead To Death

In last year's surprise hit series Agatha All Along, the MCU introduced Aubrey Plaza in the role of Rio Vidal. Rio, a past lover of Agatha Harkness with whom she shares a complicated relationship, is summoned to the Witches' Road by the coven as a replacement Green Witch after the death of Sharon Davis/Mrs. Hart during the first trial.

Rio claims to be not just A Green Witch, but The Green Witch. This foreshadows the reveal in episode 7, 'Death's Hand In Mine', that Rio is actually the MCU's personification of Death, and thus the ultimate Green Witch, as Green Magic deals with the cycle of life and death. The fracture in Agatha and Rio's relationship was caused by Death needing to take Agatha's son, Nicky.

What exactly does this have to do with the Young Avengers? Well..

Cheating Death

Agatha All Along also reintroduces Billy Maximoff, destined to become the hero Wiccan, a founding Young Avenger in the comics. Billy, one of Wanda Maximoff's twin sons, manages to survive the dismantling of his Mother's hex over Westview when his soul enters the body of Eastview teen William Kaplan, recently deceased in a car accident.

Rio believes Billy is upsetting the balance of nature by having stolen a life, and wants to take him before he can similarly steal a new life for his twin, Tommy. However, she needs him to give himself up, fearing that simply taking him will prompt his soul to find a new host.

Serial death-dodger Agatha, in what she insists is a calculated risk and not a sacrifice, gives herself up to Rio/Death, arguably balancing the life-death scales in Billy's favor.

Anyone who has watched the series will already know the problem with this.

By this point, Agatha had already helped Billy do exactly what Rio had not wanted him to do, giving Tommy a new life by placing his soul in the newly-dead body of a currently unknown troubled teen. Eventually, Rio will work this out, and will probably not be very happy about it. In fact, one unused version of the series ending had Rio pursuing Billy and Agatha's ghost as they depart on their search for Tommy.

Of course now, Billy and Tommy may not be the only Young Avengers on Death's radar..

A Deal with the Devil

The recent finale of Ironheart delivered an unexpected twist when it revealed Sacha Baron Cohen as the demon Mephisto, an eagerly awaited character in the MCU. Parker Robbins' hood, and the powers it granted him, had been gained through a deal with Mephisto that was beginning to sour. Having witnessed the outcome for Parker, fans were surprised and slightly horrified in the finale's final few minutes, wherein it is heavily implied that Riri Williams makes her own deal with Mephisto.

It has been suggested that Riri, who has doubts about what can be accomplished by magic, agreed to the deal mostly because she didn't believe that Mephisto could actually give her what she wanted most. So, she was caught off guard when her best friend Natalie, who had been killed in a drive-by shooting prior to the events of the series, shows up alive. Her resurrection, like Billy's, could be considered not entirely natural, and also upsetting the natural balance.

While Mephisto is obviously Riri's most immediate problem, Natalie's unnatural resurrection could also draw the attention of Death, and considering Riri and therefore potentially Natalie will be in the orbit of the Young Avengers at sometime in the future, the team could end up involved.

As well as Tommy and Billy's involvement, speculation on future events adds further to this theory.

Saving Ant-Man?

As mentioned earlier, a Young Avengers focus project is unlikely to emerge until after the Doomsday/Secret Wars double. Despite leaked concept art hinting at their presence, none of the characters believed to eventually make up the MCU's Young Avengers team are currently confirmed to appear in Avengers: Doomsday. However, Paul Rudd is returning as Scott Lang/Ant-Man, the Father of potential Young Avenger Cassie Lang. Since his defeat of Kang in Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania, some fans believe that Scott unintentionally made himself seem a greater threat to future villains and painted a target on his back, leading them to fear his fate come Doomsday.

In the comics, Scott Lang is killed during the Avengers: Disassembled story arc, inspiring Cassie to a career in heroism in his memory. However, in Young Avengers: The Children's Crusade, Cassie averts Scott's death during a trip back in time with the Scarlet Witch. Some fans have theorised that Ant-Man will die in either Doomsday or Secret Wars, but have his death reversed in an adaptation of The Children's Crusade, which has long been rumoured to be on the cards.

If the above scenarios all come to pass, it would mean not one, but four unnatural resurrections connected to the Young Avengers. This would almost certainly attract the attention of Rio Vidal/Death.

It is important to note that Rio is not actually evil, or a villain. She is a force of nature- Death simply is. Any threat she posed to the Young Avengers would, in theory, be ended by the restoration of balance.. but that, as in Agatha All Along, may require a sacrifice.

Perhaps we will receive more clues in future MCU projects