After some upheaval, pieces are starting to fall into place for the next Avengers movie. Deadline reports that Loki creator Michael Waldron is being tapped to write Avengers: The Kang Dynasty following the departure of director Destin Daniel Cretton. Waldron is now set to write both The Kang Dynasty and Secret Wars, which will wrap up the Multiverse Saga.
Waldron made a great first impression by creating and serving as showrunner of the first season of Loki in 2021. He then wrote Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, which didn’t receive the same level of acclaim but made nearly $1 billion. Nevertheless, Marvel Studios clearly trusts Waldron and believes he can land this increasingly creaky plane.
Marvel announced two Avengers movies at San Diego Comic-Con in July 2022. In September, Deadline reported that Jeff Loveness — having recently finished writing Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania — would write the script for Avengers: The Kang Dynasty. Then, in May, reporter Jeff Sneider said on Twitter that Loveness had been removed from the project.
This seemingly tumultuous journey has finally come to an end, per Deadline’s report.
Now that Avengers 5 and Avengers 6 have a writer, Marvel has to find directors for both movies. Destin Daniel Cretton (Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings) was set to direct Avengers: The Kang Dynasty, but Deadline reported earlier this month that Cretton stepped away from the project. Following the report, Sneider chimed in once again, claiming that Marvel wanted to find someone who could direct both Avengers movies.
This has been an especially chaotic stretch for Marvel Studios, punctuated by negative reviews from critics and the box office bomb that is The Marvels. Repairing the damage that the studio has done to its reputation is going to take time, and now Michael Waldron has as much time as he needs to craft two worthy follow-ups to Infinity War and Endgame. If these crossovers don’t live up to expectations, it could alter the future of the MCU.