“Avengers: The Kang Dynasty” has been renamed with a complete pivot. The subsequent Avengers films could be “Avengers: Doomsday” and “Avengers: Secret Wars” and each will be directed by the Russo Brothers.
Directors Joe and Anthony Russo are teaming up with Marvel Studios once again to helm the upcoming superhero team-up feature. On Saturday night, they made their return official by taking the stage at San Diego Comic-Con’s Hall H to thunderous applause.
“After we directed ‘Avengers: Endgame,’ we really believed that was the pinnacle for us in the Marvel Cinematic Universe,” Joe Russo told the gang. “That four-film run was unimaginable, and it left us creatively exhausted.” However, in the time since then, the duo have discovered a “very particular story” that has them excited to return. In fact, “it’s the most important story that Marvel Comics has ever told. It’s the explanation for why Anthony and I are here.” And that film is ‘Avengers: Secret Wars.’”
However, to build toward the epic battle that is “Secret Wars,” the story would want the kind of pivotal character that is “necessary” to do “Secret Wars” justice. Enter Doomsday to be played by Robert Downey Jr., the person who helped put the MCU on the map along with his diabolical turn as Iron Man/Tony Stark. The main film is titled “Avengers: Doomsday” and will premiere in May 2026 with “Avengers: Secret Wars” following in May 2027.
The Russo brothers replace Destin Daniel Cretton, who left the film in November 2023 to focus on other Marvel tasks on his schedule, including a potential sequel to his 2021 film “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.” Michael Waldron, who created Marvel’s Disney+ series “Loki,” is writing the script for both this “Avengers” film and the sequel, “Avengers: Secret Wars,” which is expected to be the “Endgame”-style conclusion to what studio boss Kevin Feige has dubbed the Multiverse Saga in 2022.
The Russo brothers are outsiders to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. They previously directed the two most recent “Avengers” films, “Infinity Struggle” and “Endgame,” and two “Captain America” films, “The Winter Soldier” and “Civil Struggle.” After making the “Avengers” films, which grossed more than $2 billion at the box office, the Russos left Marvel to direct “Cherry,” a gritty crime drama starring Tom Holland, Netflix’s “The Gray Man,” an action thriller starring Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans, and the streamer’s upcoming “The Electrical State.”
Many observers felt the decision to rename “The Kang Dynasty” was inevitable after Jonathan Majors — the actor who had been playing the titular Marvel supervillain Kang for two years — was convicted in December of assault and battery against his now ex-girlfriend. The studio parted ways with the actor less than two hours after the decision was announced, ending nearly a year of uncertainty over Majors’ future with Marvel following his arrest in March. However, the studio has remained mum on whether losing Majors also meant saying goodbye to the Kang character.
There may be precedent for Marvel recasting a high-profile role: Don Cheadle replaced Terrence Howard as James “Rhodey” Rhodes in “Iron Man 2,” and Mark Ruffalo replaced Edward Norton as Bruce Banner in “The Avengers.” However, that was after the original actor had only played the role once; Majors has played Kang multiple times, including in the first and second seasons of “Loki,” and as the main villain in 2023’s “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.” In that film’s mid-credits scene, Majors even appears as an army of Kang variants; taking on all those performances could be a daunting task for any new actor.
More importantly, audiences haven’t quite embraced Kang as a personality, or the multiverse as a storytelling device, in the same way that Thanos and the Infinity Saga served as strong narrative spines in the 2010s. The “Loki” Season 2 finale tied up Kang’s storyline so that Marvel could move on without unduly interrupting its broader plans for the Multiverse Saga. With this new title, that seems to be exactly what the studio is doing.
Opposite Doomsday’ directed by the Russo brothers first appeared on All celebrities.