Marvel Confirms Production Moving Ahead On ‘Kang Dynasty,’ ‘Secret Wars’ Despite Doubts

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Three variants of Kang played by Jonathan Majors

Credit: Marvel Studios

Marvel Studios has taken a giant step forward this week with its upcoming Avengers movies.

Marvel Studios has been suffering from a disjointed and confused direction since Avengers: Endgame was released in 2019. The release of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania earlier this year seemed to solidify the perilousness of the situation as it tanked in theaters, becoming the worst Marvel release to date with a tie coming in with the recent release of The Marvels. Amid these failures, it was recently announced that Marvel would be undergoing a massive overhaul of its behind-the-scenes productions, including overhauling its entire television department and several of its upcoming projects.

Captain Marvel (Brie Larson) stands next to Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani)
Credit: Marvel Studios

The shuffling affected the highly-anticipated Daredevil: Born Again series as well as the upcoming fifth and sixth Avengers movies, Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and Avengers: Secret Wars. Kang Dynasty was already in troubled waters due to the controversy surrounding Kang actor Jonathan Majors. Earlier this year, it was revealed that Majors had been hit with abuse, strangulation, and harassment charges from his ex-girlfriend, putting his future with Marvel at risk. Fans speculated that the studio would drop the actor, either recasting him or moving away from a Kang-centered storyline completely.

Last month, Variety released a controversial article that leaked several alleged happenings behind the scenes. One of these allegations was that the studio had been planning to move away from Majors and Kang as far back as Quantumania, blaming the actor for being the reason why the film flopped. Earlier this month it was also confirmed that the writer previously attached to Kang Dynasty had been dropped, fueling rumors that Marvel was planning a completely new direction.

Jonathan Majors as Kang the Conqueror in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania
Credit: Marvel Studios

Jeff Loveness had been the writer for Quantumania and had signed on to write the scripted for The Kang Dynasty. His departure from the project was confirmed by Joanna Robinson, a host of the House of R podcast. Not only was Loveness dropped from Kang, but he was also reportedly completely out at Marvel, “they said the reason why is he was all wrapped up in this Kang storyline, and they are likely going to be moving away from that.”

The fate of the Avengers and the studio seemed to be completely up in the air until earlier this week, when Discussing Film confirmed that Marvel was still moving forward with both Kang Dynasty and Secret Wars with the placement of a new writer. “Michael Waldron is now the writer of both ‘AVENGERS: THE KANG DYNASTY’ & ‘AVENGERS: SECRET WARS’. He previously wrote ‘MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS’ & created ‘LOKI’ for Marvel Studios.”

Waldron may be a controversial figure in Marvel fandom, with two vastly different projects under his belt. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022) still has mixed reviews as an MCU installment while Loki is widely regarded as not only the best series in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but also one of its best projects overall. Despite his mixed successes with previous projects, his signing on to the Avengers films at least proves that Marvel is still moving forward with both despite concerns and speculations.

loki-season-1-he-who-remains-variant
Credit: Marvel Studios

Marvel at least seems to be back on track for its major upcoming films, although both Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and Avengers: Secret Wars have some big shoes to fill as follow-ups to Avengers: Infinity War (2018) and Avengers: Endgame. Hopefully Waldron’s success with Loki will be enough to power him through a script that’s worthy of the Avengers name.

Are you excited at the confirmation that Marvel is moving forward with its two biggest projects? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!

 

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