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Avengers 5 and Avengers: Secret Wars are upcoming American superhero films based on Marvel Comics featuring the Avengers, produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. They are the sequels to The Avengers (2012), Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), Avengers: Infinity War (2018), and Avengers: Endgame (2019), and serve as the 40th and 41st films of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), respectively. Both films will be written by Michael Waldron, and will feature an ensemble cast composed of previous MCU actors.

Development of the films began with Phase Four of the MCU in 2021, during which Marvel Studios introduced the concept of the multiverse, with certain films and television series fully exploring it as a setting or plot device. The films were officially announced a year later during the studio's Hall H panel at San Diego Comic-Con in July 2022. Destin Daniel Cretton was revealed to be directing The Kang Dynasty later that month, while Jeff Loveness was hired to write the film the following month. Both individuals departed the film in November 2023 amidst Marvel discussing shifting the focus away from Kang the Conqueror amidst controversies concerning his actor, Jonathan Majors. Marvel fired Majors the following month, by which point the fifth Avengers film became untitled. Michael Waldron boarded to write Secret Wars in October. Waldron subsequently replaced Loveness as Avengers 5's screenwriter the following November. The pair of films are designed to conclude the overarching storyline told across Phases Four, Five and Six, bookending "The Multiverse Saga" arc of the franchise's story.

Avengers 5 is scheduled to be released on May 1, 2026, and Avengers: Secret Wars will be released on May 7, 2027. Both films will be part of Phase Six of the MCU.

Background

Beginning with Phase Four of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), Marvel Studios fully introduced the concept of the multiverse following several allusions to its existence made throughout the preceding phase.^[1][2] Projects such as the Disney+ television series Loki^[3] and What If...? (2021–present),^[4] as well as the films Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021) and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022),^[5] had throughly incorporated the multiverse and various branching realities into their stories either as plot devices, or fully realized settings.^[6][7] Furthermore, the multiverse was used to establish various characters and story elements unassociated with the franchise, directly in the universe, such as the return of characters from previous Spider-Man films produced by Sony Pictures in No Way Home, as well as the appearance of the alternate universe organization, the Illuminati in Multiverse of Madness, whose lineup comprised of various characters and actors associated with the MCU or other Marvel film properties.^[8][9][10] The multiverse has been incorporated into subsequent MCU projects. The film The Marvels (2023) introduced the concept of incursions to the MCU's Sacred Timeline, scenarios involving the collision and simultaneous destruction of two or more universes, which first appeared in the 2015 "Secret Wars" event by Jonathan Hickman.^[11] The second season of Loki (2023) incorporated different time periods and variants of established characters, while its finale depicted the titular character (Tom Hiddleston) becoming the "God of Stories", binding branch realities together into the Sacred Timeline as the new overseer of the multiverse.^[12][1] Future projects include the third season of What If...?, the exploration of an alternate Peter Parker's origin story in the animated series Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man and its second season, the appearances of Wade Wilson / Deadpool (reprised by Ryan Reynolds), James "Logan" Howlett / Wolverine (reprised by Hugh Jackman), and various other characters from the 20th Century Fox-produced X-Men film series in Deadpool & Wolverine (2024),^[13][14] and the adult-oriented animated series Marvel Zombies (2024), which shares continuity with the What If...? season 1 episode, "What If... Zombies?!" (2021).^[15][16][17]

Kang the Conqueror, a recurring villain and adversary to the Avengers and the Fantastic Four in the comics, who traverses space and time while having multiple alternate counterparts, was reported to be appearing as the main antagonist of the upcoming film Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023), alongside the casting of Jonathan Majors in said role, which was officially confirmed by Marvel Studios in December 2020.^[18][19] The character's debut in the MCU was teased by the appearance of his "variant", He Who Remains, in the final episode of Loki's first season, "For All Time. Always." (2021), in which he was played by Majors himself.^[20] Loki star Tom Hiddleston described He Who Remains' role as the "architect" of the Time Varience Authority as the "one solitary light on in the window" amongst the otherwise abandoned Citadel at the End of Time itself where he resides throughout the series. Majors would describe his performance in the episode as providing him with the "largest canvas possible", while also teasing the character's death at the hands of Loki's own variant Sylvie Laufeydottir, as the point in the story where "Kang begins to rear his head and do his deeds". He would further cite the idea of a villain who "lives in so many iterations", as a reason for his interest in the role of Kang and his contrast with He Who Remains.^[21] On transitioning from He Who Remains to his portrayal of Kang the Conqueror in Quantummania, Majors would describe the process of differentiating the characters, emphasizing the work required to reapply his performance to the scale of a film as opposed to a television series like Loki.^[22]

Announcement

In May 2018 following the release of Avengers: Infinity War (2018), current Disney CEO Bob Iger said of Marvel's plans beyond the then-upcoming Avengers: Endgame (2019), "I'm guessing we will try our hand at what I'll call a new franchise beyond Avengers, but that doesn't necessarily mean you won't see more Avengers down the road. We just haven't made any announcements about that." Iger added, "Given the popularity of the characters and given the popularity of the franchise, I don't think people should conclude there will never be another Avengers movie."^[23] Shortly after Endgame's premiere, the Russo brothers, the directors of both Infinity War and Endgame, said they were not opposed to returning to the MCU in the future due to their positive relationship with Marvel Studios, but did not plan to do so at that time.^[24] In January 2021, Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige said another Avengers film would happen "at some point".^[25]

In July 2022 during that year's San Diego Comic-Con, Marvel Studios officially announced Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and Avengers: Secret Wars as the concluding installments of Phase Six of the MCU, as well as "The Multiverse Saga" arc that began with Phase Four.^[26] Feige confirmed following the studio's Hall H panel that the Russo brothers would not be returning for the upcoming Avengers films.^[27] Later that month, it was announced that Avengers: The Kang Dynasty would be helmed by Destin Daniel Cretton, who had previously served as the writer and director of the Phase Four film Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021), and was by that point also slated to reprise his duties for that film's sequel, in addition to developing a television series centered around the character Wonder Man for Disney+.^[28][29] In October 2022, Marvel Studios delayed multiple films on their production slate, including re-scheduling the release of Avengers: Secret Wars for May 1, 2026, nearly a full year after The Kang Dynasty.^[30] The Kang Dynasty and Secret Wars were delayed again to new dates on May 1, 2026 and May 7, 2027, respectively. The rescheduling has been attributed to progress on both films' screenplays being indefinitely halted due to the 2023 Writers Guild of America strike, which also affected other projects in development at Marvel Studios.^[31] In November 2023, Cretton departed The Kang Dynasty in what was said to be an "amicable exit", despite continuing to be involved in other MCU projects.^[32]

Casting

In October 2022, Jonathan Majors was confirmed to be reprising his role as Kang the Conqueror in Avengers: The Kang Dynasty, following his appearances as different variants of the character in the Phase Five film Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and the second season of Loki (both 2023), while the actor was also confirmed to return in Avengers: Secret Wars in January 2023.^[33] Majors described director Destin Daniel Cretton's work on the film as "grounded and that's the most important part of it".^[34] While promoting the Disney+ television series She-Hulk: Attorney at Law (2022) in August 2022, actor Mark Ruffalo, who portrays Bruce Banner in various MCU media, spoke on the future of the series' eponymous protagonist Jennifer Walters / She-Hulk (Tatiana Maslany) and the character's prospects of being featured in other projects going forward, stating that "She's in now. There's not going to be another Avengers without her" according to what he had heard.^[35]

In September 2022, Jeff Loveness was hired to write Avengers: The Kang Dynasty, marking his second collaboration with Marvel Studios following the Phase Five film Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023).^[36] While making a guest appearance at Grand Canyon University the following week, he announced that he would begin to write the screenplay in "two weeks" from then.^[37] Loveness described the challenges of writing an antagonist such as Kang the Conqueror who traverses space and time due to the risks of becoming derivative, attributed to the emphasis on time travel in the plot of Avengers: Endgame (2019). He stated in an interview that, "you almost need to broaden him out a little bit too, maybe broaden out into the multiverse a little more, the dimensionality of the character, the limitless freedom he has while also being completely uprooted from his time and himself." Loveness also expressed his desire to extrapolate as much from the pre-established material in the comic books, but exclaimed that the intent was to put a "completely new spin" on the story, stressing that "If you just do a 100% comic book adaptation people know all the tricks and what to expect. You have to use that as a foundation and then throw a curveball".^[38] Loveness also teased the possibility of further variants of Kang appearing in The Kang Dynasty, specifically denoting his own research into characters such as Rama-Tut and Scarlet Centurion. Loveness cited the nature of his alternate counterparts as the "joy" of developing a character such as Kang the Conqueror, describing him as "this infinite snake eating infinite tails, a man literally at war against himself."^[39] By November 2023, Loveness was reported to have been let go by Marvel Studios as the film's writer just as the film's original director Destin Daniel Cretton similarly departed the project.^[40]

In early October 2022, Michael Waldron was announced as the writer for Avengers: Secret Wars. Preceding his hiring, he was considered a frontrunner among writers being examined by Marvel, largely due to the trust between him and the studio coming off of his time served as head writer for the first season of the Disney+ television series Loki (2021–present), and writing the film Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022).^[41] Waldron subsequently replaced Jeff Loveness as The Kang Dynasty's writer in November 2023 following his departure earlier in the month.^[42]