The Kang Dynasty’ Loses Director

Has another alternate reality been pruned from the Sacred Timeline?

It would appear that things are shifting around for the next Avengers sequel, which, at least for now, is called Avengers: The Kang Dynasty. Named after a Marvel comics storyline in which the time-traveling super-villain conquers Earth, the film was expected to feature Jonathan Majors as the Marvel Cinematic Universe version of the character, who previously appeared as Kang (or variants of Kang) in Loki Seasons 1 and 2 and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. 

For now, none of that has officially changed. But Jonathan Majors continues to have major legal issues due to his arrest and impending trial on assault and harassment charges. (Loki Season 2 included Majors as another Kang variant, but concluded in a way that could be read as removing him from Marvel’s ongoing storyline entirely.) And recently there are all sorts of rumblings about things going on behind the scenes of this movie. The latest: The Hollywood Reporter says that the film has lost its director, Destin Daniel Cretton, who previously helmed Marvel’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.

“Cretton had been attached since last year, with the news announced on the heels of San Diego Comic-Con,” THR writes.

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THR also claims “it is unclear” whether Jeff Loveness’ script for the film is still in play or whether “another writer will now take a stab” at reworking the material. As of yet it remains entirely unclear which Marvel heroes will appear in the film as the Avengers.

This news follows a slew of similar announcements of Marvel projects being postponed or heavily reworked. Marvel is now releasing just one feature film in theaters in 2024 (Deadpool 3); the first time they’ve had only one new movie in a calendar year for the first time (not counting 2020 and the worst of the pandemic) since 2012. They are also in the midst of reworking their Daredevil: Born Again TV show almost entirely from scratch, and will reportedly discard much of the footage for it they had filmed prior to the start of the actors’ strikes.

Avengers: The Kang Dynasty is scheduled to open in theaters on May 1, 2026. At least for now.