Destin Daniel Cretton No Longer Directing ‘Avengers: The Kang Dynasty’
There is a lot in flux at Marvel Studios at the moment. While the whole franchise tries to set a path forward given the poor reception of some of its recent projects and the ongoing legal troubles of Jonathan Majors, who was once going to play the big role in the ongoing storyline, one of its big upcoming titles has just suffered a major setback. Avengers: The Kang Dynasty will no longer be directed by Destin Daniel Cretton.
As Deadline reports, the split was amicable and it was Cretton who decided to focus on his Disney Plus series Wonder Man and the already-announced sequel to his 2021 film Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. Both parties remain on good terms, and Cretton would apparently be in talks to helm future Marvel titles. Wonder Man, which will fall under the Marvel Spotlight banner created for Echo (which will highlight stories not really needed to follow MCU continuity), is set to resume filming after Thanksgiving.
Jeff Loveness was once tapped to write the script for the film, but reports from a few months ago were that he also left the project, pre-strike. Loveness had scripted Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, whose poor critical reception could have scared Marvel away — especially considering the criticisms his script got. Most recently, Joanna Robinson, co-author of the book MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios, said that Loveness had left because Marvel was scrapping the entire Kang angle. That seems kind of doubtful, though, if the reports about him leaving before the strike, i.e., sometime in April or before, were true. Majors was arrested in late March, so that wouldn’t have given Marvel a lot of time to course correct.
The Hollywood Reporter said that Loveness had written a draft of the movie, but seemed to confirm that he’s no longer involved with it.
So we no longer have a writer or a director on the next Avengers film. Loki producer Kevin Wright said recently that Michael Waldron, who created that show and wrote Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, is developing both The Kang Dynasty and Avengers: Secret Wars. It’s unclear if he meant as a writer or as an executive producer, though. Waldron was once announced as the writer on Secret Wars, but once again, Internet rumors painted him as being off the project earlier this year.
No director was ever announced for Avengers: Secret Wars, although Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead, who helmed four of the six episodes of Loki season 2, recently expressed interest in directing that. They are currently hard at work on the overhauled Daredevil: Born Again series for Disney Plus.
As of today, Avengers: The Kang Dynasty is slated for a May 1, 2026, release date. Secret Wars would come out in May 2027. However, Disney just delayed two films that were once planned for the summer of 2024 into 2025, Captain America: Brave New World and Thunderbolts. It seems almost impossible that they will be able to meet those release dates, especially if, one year before they should start filming, they don’t have a director or a first draft of Kang Dynasty.
Moreover, they might not even know if it’s gonna be centered on Kang anymore. If there is someone keeping a close eye on Majors’ trial, it’s definitely Marvel Studios.
Miguel Fernández is a Spanish student that has movies as his second passion in life. His favorite movie of all time is The Lord of the Rings, but he is also a huge Star Wars fan. However, fantasy movies are not his only cup of tea, as authors like Scorsese, Fincher, Kubrick or Hitchcock have been an obsession for him since he started to understand the language of filmmaking. He is that guy who will watch a black and white movie, just because it is in black and white.
