Amidst an ever-dire scramble to try and save the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, a new report claims that Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings director Destin Daniel Cretton will no longer be bringing his talents to Avengers: Kang Dynasty.
Word of this shake-up was first brought to light via Deadline’s Anthony D’Alesandro, who on November 15th revealed that, per his own sources within the studio, Cretton had recently chosen to both amicably and voluntarily step away from his role helming the Earth’s Mightiest Heroes’ next outing.
Further, Cretton is said to have made this move in order to “focus on his other Marvel projects”, most notably the upcoming Wonder Man Disney Plus series and a sequel to the aforementioned Master of Kung-Fu’s solo outing.
Though D’Allesandro was unable to provide any specific details as to what this shake-up could mean for the film itself, it should be noted that Cretton’s exit comes just days after it was reported by MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios co-author Joanna Robinson that, in the wake of Jonathan Majors’ ongoing domestic assault case, Marvel had officially decided to move on from the time-traveling despot as the MCU’s next big bad.
“I actually heard from someone recently,” recalled Robinson on the November 11th episode of The Ringer’s House of R podcast. “So, the screenwriter Jeff Loveness, who wrote [Ant-Man and the Wasp:] Quantumania was supposed to write Kang Dynasty, I had it confirmed to me that he is no longer working for Marvel.”
“I asked the person why,” she added, “and they said the reason why is that he was all wrapped up in this Kang storyline and that they are likely going to be moving away from that.”
“So no official announcement that Avengers: Kang Dynasty will now be called ‘Doom’s Dystopia’ or whatever,” Robinson ultimately concluded. “We don’t know exactly what they’re going to do, to be clear, but I think that this just gives them the perfect opportunity to just be done [with the Majors situation] if they want to be.”
As of writing, Marvel has yet to offer any official word regarding both Majors and Kang’s future in the MCU.