Marvel Studios has shaken up the MCU more than once over the last few years—most recently at San Diego Comic-Con, where it was revealed that the next Avengers movie would highlight a new supervillain. Avengers: Doomsday will star Robert Downey Jr. as Doctor Doom, taking over for Kang after actor Jonathan Majors was fired last year. But where does that leave the heroes who were meant to face off against Kang in Avengers: The Kang Dynasty?
The Avengers don’t technically exist in the Marvel Cinematic Universe right now. The team was disbanded following the events of Avengers: Endgame and most former members are off-world, retired, or dead. Seeds have been planted for a new team, but we are now less than two years away from the next Avengers movie without much progress on the team-up front.
We expect some progress to be made next year in Captain America: Brave New World and The Fantastic Four: First Steps. In the meantime, a new report has revealed that Shang-Chi was set to play a major role in The Kang Dynasty before the name change.
“Inverse can confirm that in the original plan for Avengers 5, then called Kang Dynasty, Shang-Chi would’ve been one of the film’s main leads,” Inverse claimed.
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings appeared to set Simu Liu’s character up for a much more prominent part in future movies, but we haven’t seen the character since 2021.
Over the last three years, star Simu Liu has repeatedly insisted that Shang-Chi 2 is coming, but Marvel has yet to announce the sequel. Liu even told the Press Trust of India just last week that “a lot of it is above my pay grade, but it’s definitely happening.”
As we noted earlier this month, Marvel will release four untitled movies between now and the end of 2027. One is slated for February 13, 2026, which is just three months before Avengers: Doomsday hits theaters. If Shang-Chi is still one of the stars of Avengers 5, this would seemingly be the perfect spot to reintroduce him to the MCU.
