Marvel's Avengers beta files reportedly point to She Hulk and Kate Bishop as DLC characters

The post-launch characters for Marvel's Avengers may include She Hulk and Kate Bishop, the female heroes opposite Hulk and Hawkeye respectively.

That's according to a list of characters which was purportedly found within files attached to the game's recent beta. Reddit user 6plus4equals52 posted the list, seemingly tied to various in-game assets, earlier this week. 

A total of nine characters are listed. Six of them are launch heroes: Black Widow, Captain America, Thor, Hulk, Iron Man, and Ms. Marvel. Hawkeye, or Clint Barton, is already known, and the other two are She Hulk and Kate Bishop. Together with the PlayStation-exclusive hero Spider-Man, which logically wouldn't be listed in a multi-platform beta, this fills out the initial roster of 10 heroes which developer Crystal Dynamics has promised. 

Some Reddit users reasonably suggested that She Hulk and Kate Bishop could be echo fighters of Hulk and Hawkeye, but this seems unlikely given a previous statement from Crystal Dynamics studio head Scot Amos. As IGN reported, in 2019 Amos said that DLC heroes would not feel like the heroes in the base game, and would have their own identities and abilities.

However, there are a few caveats here. Firstly, we can't confirm the validity of the files containing these character names, and we've yet to see other reports corroborating it. Secondly, these names could be tied to any number of things beyond playable heroes. She Hulk and Kate Bishop have reportedly been found in listings for tokens, nameplates, and hero cards, but until we have a better idea of the collectibles and resources in Marvel's Avengers, we can't say for sure what that means.

Assuming these files are legitimate, this does bump She Hulk and Kate Bishop up the list of plausible characters, but they are by no means confirmed. We've reached out to publisher Square Enix for clarification, and we'll update you if we hear back. 

Marvel's Avengers also has exclusive content for some ISPs.