Before we begin, a note: for all the places reporting this spot of news, it all seems a touch suspect. We’ll report it for the sake of sharing information, but keep in mind that something about how this information has been released to the public seems quite suspect.
With that note out of the way, here goes nothing. As spotted by Spinoff and reported by Marvel TV News, it would appear that Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes will not be renewed for a third season. In its place comes Avengers Assemble, a cartoon starring the cast of the movie (seen above, and clearly modeled after the movie) as well as the Falcon.
There is no confirmation of this, mind you — Marvel TV News report this as a Print Only press release that no one else seems to have received (we at Multiversity have received no press releases) and Spinoff, a sub-site of CBR (which hosts weekly chats with Marvel’s EIC) reports no confirmation from Marvel on the news. However, given that this has been a quiet rumor for some time now, one might assume there is some validity. Possible. Maybe.
This wouldn’t be the first time something like this has happened with what we could probably call a fairly beloved kids cartoon. Spectacular Spider-Man, one of the best animated representations of Spidey around, was replaced with Ultimate Spider-Man, which hasn’t measured up (despite a nice Doop cameo). Wolverine and the X-Men, a great psuedo-follow up to the fantastic X-Men cartoon of the 90’s, was also cancelled, with no X-Replacement (though you’d think there’d be one). Now the beloved current Avengers cartoon which, unlike the cancelled cartoons, is produced in-house and is written by Marvel comic writers is to be replaced with a new one ostensibly geared towards the movie crowd? It all seems a bit odd.
Here’s the really odd thing about it: Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes is a show that introduces (assumedly) kids to a wider Marvel universe, with an incredibly diverse cast of characters making an appearance. We’ve seen the Guardians of the Galaxy in a recent episode, we’ve seen Skrulls, Hydra, Black Panther, the Masters of Evil, Zemo, Korvac, Beta Ray Bill… all these interesting characters that populate the Marvel Universe we as fans already know and love. To throw that out the window for what is ostensibly a more streamlined cartoon seems a tad bit foolish, especially if the goal by the cartoon is to get kids in the comic. A show with the Guardians in it makes a comic with the Guardians that much more appealing, does it not?
Suffice it to say, we’ll have to wait to see if Marvel confirms this any time soon. Until then, take the above information with a grain of salt.
