To the surprise of very few who actually caught his silver screen debut, a new rumor suggests that Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania writer Jeff Loveness will no longer be penning the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s next big crossover film.
This development was first alleged by noted film reporter and scooper Jeff Sneider during the May 18th episode of his and film critic John Rocha’s The Hot Mic podcast, wherein near the end of the episode, Sneider received a “breaking news scoop” from one of his insider sources.
“This is unconfirmed,” Sneider proceeded to inform the audience, “[but] my source is saying that Jeff Loveness is off of The Kang Dyanasty and that he fell off before the [WGA Writers] strike.”
[Time Stamp: 1:12:10]
Taken aback by this apparent development, Rocha then pressed Sneider, “So what does that mean? They’re gonna start all over again with how they’re approaching this? Find a new writer?”
“Yes, that’s exactly what it means,” his co-host confirmed in reply. “It sounds like Jeff Loveness – deserved or not – got a lot of criticism for his scripts and yes, it sounds like they’re going in another direction, from what my source says.
Notably, Loveness’ exit from The Kang Dynasty comes at a time of uncertainty regarding the MCU future of the actor behind the Avengers’ next major threat, Jonathan Majors, courtesy of his recently being charged with multiple counts of assault and harassment against a supposed girlfriend.
Though Disney and Marvel have yet to publicly announce whether or not they will continue retaining Majors’ talents – though a separate rumor claims that they may address the question in the upcoming second season of Loki – Loveness has previously noted that he was working closely with the actor to shape the next outing of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.
Asked by The Hollywood Reporter’s Brian Davids during a February interview if he could provide any insight into the then-current status of The Kang Dynasty’s script, the screenwriter recalled, “It’s hard to even say. I think I’m in the jet-lag stage of a press tour, but we’re working on it.”
“[The film’s director] Destin [Daniel Cretton] is incredible,” said the writer, whose most significant writing credits prior to serving as the one-time architect of the MCU’s future were seven episodes of Rick & Morty and over 200 episodes of Jimmy Kimmel Live!. “I’ve had conversations with Jonathan about where he wants to take the character, so it’s still very early days. We’ve got like 40 more movies to go before I get there, but we’ve certainly got a plan. We’re all very excited for the story that we’re laying down, so now it’s just on me and my ADHD and my procrastination and all that.”
As of writing, Avengers: The Kang Dynasty is presumably still on track for a May 2nd, 2025 release date.