As their plans for the future of their shared cinematic universe continues to wildly fluctuate, Marvel Studios has reportedly tapped Loki creator and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness writer Michael Waldron to pen their upcoming franchise-hail-mary, Avengers: The Kang Dynasty.
Reportedly now one of “Marvel’s most trusted creative minds” thanks to his respective work with the God of Stories and the Sorcerer Supreme, Waldron’s promotion from Marvel’s television endeavors to their silver screen division was first announced on November 27th, courtesy of Deadline.
Notably, in light of his previously announced attachment as the writer for the Secret Wars sequel, Waldron’s new gig now leaves him the sole – or at least primary – screenwriter behind both of Marvel’s upcoming Avengers outings.
Interestingly, this news surrounding Waldron comes roughly two weeks after MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios co-author and noted Marvel insider Joanna Robinson alleged that, for reasons unknown, the studio was looking to angle way from Kang as the Avengers’ 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.”
Further compounding this situation is the fact that shortly after Robinson raised her latest news, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings director Destin Daniel Cretton chose to amicably and voluntarily step away from his previously-confirmed role as the director of Kang Dynasty.
But in regards to this particular shake-up, though it was claimed that Cretton made this decision in order to “focus on his other Marvel projects”, which currently includes the supposed Wonder Man series and a Shang-Chi sequel, word on the street suggests that “the idea that he’s going to be working on the Wonder Man series is cover.”
“‘Cause from what I’m being told is that the actors were told to move on from the Wonder Man series and if they are going to do it they were going to be starting from scratch,” said film critic John Rocha during the November 16th episode of his and industry reporter Jeff Sneider’s The Hot Mic podcast [Time Stamp: 24:41].
“So, one of two things is going on,” he continued to explain to his co-host.” The Wonder Man series is dead and this is a Justin Simeon/Donald Glover situation where they’re saying he wants to focus on Wonder Man and Shang-Chi 2, and then like a month later they’re going to say Wonder Man is cancelled, they couldn’t figure it out or whatever, and this is providing cover for Destin Daniel Cretton. Or they are starting from scratch. They let some of the actors go, but they might be bringing some of them back to restart this machine all over again.”
As of writing, Avengers: Kang Dynasty – or, if Robinson is to be believed, whatever project Marvel ultimately decides to produce in its place – is set to threaten the multiverse on May 1st, 2026.