“Loki” creator Michael Waldron has been hired to write the screenplay for “Avengers: The Kang Dynasty.”
He was already on board to pen the sequel, “Avengers: Secret Wars,” which will conclude this stretch — known as the Multiverse Saga — of the interconnected Marvel Cinematic Universe. The films will presumably be connected, à la the two-part tale of 2018’s “Infinity War” and 2019’s “Endgame.”
“Kang Dynasty” is currently scheduled to land in theaters on May 1, 2026. It will be succeeded by “Avengers: Secret Wars” on May 7, 2027. However, neither of those films has a director. Destin Daniel Cretton recently departed “Kang Dynasty,” and the studio has yet to appoint a filmmaker for “Secret Wars.”
Beyond its directors, the state of “Kang Dynasty” and “Secret Wars” has been a subject of speculation. That’s because Jonathan Majors has already played multiple versions of the titular supervillain Kang — the Thanos of this phase of the MCU — on the Disney+ series “Loki” and this February’s “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.” But the actor’s future with Marvel has been a question mark because he’s currently awaiting trial for domestic abuse charges.
Waldron has long been seeped in the lore of Marvel, serving as showrunner of “Loki” in its first season and writing “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness,” which grossed $955 million globally.
Disney has consistently pumped out several big-screen installments in the MCU each year, but its output of comic book adaptations will dramatically slow in 2024. “Deadpool 3,” starring Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman, is the lone MCU film on the calendar for next year.
It may be for the best. “The Marvels,” which opened in November, is shaping up to be the lowest-grossing installment in the 15-year-old franchise, as well as the first to fall short of $100 million at the domestic box office. That comes on the heels of “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,” which also missed expectations as viewers have become inundated with countless spinoffs, sequels and TV series. This summer’s “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3,” however, was a success with $845 million globally.
Deadline first reported the news of Waldron’s hiring.
