Spider-Man
Tom Holland’s Peter Parker is still arguably the flagship hero of the MCU, even if Peter consciously chose to leave celebrity behind and go back to being a Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man. We can’t imagine Spidey won’t play a key role in both The Kang Dynasty and Secret Wars… unless Marvel Studios and Sony wind up having another falling-out.
There is one complication in the fact that the entire world was made to forget Spider-Man’s secret identity. The Avengers may still remember fighting alongside Spider-Man, but they don’t know who he is or how to contact him anymore.
Or do they? Some fans have pointed out that the last thing Wong says to Doctor Strange before the botched identity spell is cast in No Way Home is “Leave me out of it.” Is it possible that Strange subconsciously obeyed Wong’s order, and Wong is the one person in the world who still knows Spider-Man’s secret? That would be one way of bringing the wallcrawler back into the fold in The Kang Dynasty
War Machine
After playing a supporting role in the Iron Man and Avengers movies, Don Cheadle’s War Machine looks to be coming into his own as a solo hero in Phase 5. Cheadle will star in the Armor Wars series, a show that will likely deal with Rhodey trying to prevent Tony Stark’s tech from falling into the wrong hands.
From there, it seems only natural that War Machine will be one of the characters to fill that Iron Man-shaped hole in the Avengers. He’s an experienced soldier who brings a lot of firepower to the table. He may not be the brilliant inventor Tony was, but that’s where our next Avenger comes in.
Thor
With most of the original Avengers either dead or moving into the background in Phase 4, Thor may be the last hero carrying the torch for that era of the team. That’s reason enough to make him a member of the new team. Fortunately, Thor: Love and Thunder’s ending leaves Thor in a perfect position to pick up his hammers and fly to Earth’s defense. Maybe he’ll even bring his adopted daughter Love along for the ride.
We may see a whole lot of Thors in Avengers Secret Wars. In the 2015 Secret Wars comic, God Emperor Doom assembles a team called the Thor Corps, all of whom serve as Doom’s peacekeepers and personal police force. Chris Hemsworth may be one Thor among many.
The Ant-Man Family
Given that Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania will be the first MCU movie to feature Jonathan Majors’ Kang, we have to assume these characters have an important part to play in Avengers: The Kang Dynasty. The Quantum Realm is sure to remain a major plot point during the Multiverse Saga. It’s how the Avengers managed to reverse Thanos’ destruction, and it’s probably how Kang will bring a new level of destruction to the universe. Ant-Man got the chance to join the Avengers already, and now it’s time Wasp and Stature get to do the same.