Avengers: Reign of Kang has been rebranded to full tilt. The subsequent Avengers motion pictures might be Avengers: Endgame and Avengers: Secret Wars, each of which might be directed by the Russo brothers.
Administrators Joe and Anthony Russo are as soon as once more teaming up with Marvel Studios for the following superhero team-up film. Their return was official once they took the stage in Corridor H of San Diego Comedian-Con on Saturday evening to thunderous applause.
“After we have been directing Avengers: Endgame, we really believed that this was the tip of our Marvel Cinematic Universe,” Joe Russo advised the viewers. “That four-film run was unimaginable and it allowed us to be inventive.” After that, nonetheless, the pair found a “very particular story” that satisfied them to come back again. In reality, “That is the largest story Marvel Comics has ever advised. That is why Anthony and I are right here. That film is Avengers: Secret Wars.”
However to be able to create the epic battles of “Secret Wars,” the story wants that type of crucial character who “wants” to hold out “Secret Warfare” righteously. So enter “Doomsday,” performed by Robert Downey Jr., who helped make the Marvel Universe well-known together with his villainous position as Iron Man/Tony Stark. The primary film, titled “Avengers: Doomsday,” will premiere in Might 2026, and “Avengers: Secret Wars” will premiere in Might 2027.
The Russo brothers substitute Destin Daniel Cretton, who left the movie in November 2023 to deal with different Marvel tasks on his schedule, together with his 2021 movie The Final of Us The anticipated sequel to “The Legend of Chi and the Ten Rings”. Michael Waldron, the creator of Marvel’s Disney+ sequence “Loki,” is writing the script for the “Avengers” movie and follow-up “Avengers: Secret Wars,” which is meant to be the studio’s ” “Endgame” ending.
The Russo brothers are not any strangers to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. They beforehand directed the 2 most up-to-date Avengers motion pictures, Infinity Warfare and Endgame, in addition to the 2 Captain America motion pictures, The Winter Soldier and Civil Warfare. After making the “Avengers” motion pictures, which every grossed greater than $2 billion, the Russos left Marvel to direct “Cherry,” a gritty crime drama starring Tom Holland and Netflix’s motion thriller “The Grey Man.” ” with Ryan Gosling and Chris Ivan, in addition to the streamer’s upcoming movie Electrical Nation .
Many observers imagine that Jonathan Majors – the actor who performed Marvel supervillain Kang for 2 years – was renamed after he was convicted final December of misdemeanor assault and harassment of his now ex-girlfriend The choice in “The Kang Dynasty” was inevitable. Lower than two hours after the decision was introduced, the studio parted methods with the actor, capping practically a yr of uncertainty about Marvel’s future following Majors’ arrest in March. However the studio has remained mum on whether or not shedding Grand Slam additionally means saying goodbye to the character of Kang.
There’s precedent for Marvel recasting high-profile characters: Don Cheadle changed Terrence Howard as James “Rowdy” Rhodes in “Iron Man 2” and Mark Ruffalo changed Edward Norton as Bruce in “The Avengers” Banner. However that was after the unique actor had solely performed the character as soon as; Majors has performed Kang a number of instances, together with in Loki seasons one and two, and in 2023’s Ant-Man and the Wasp Taking part in the primary villain. Majors even appeared as a military of Kang’s mutants in that movie’s post-credits scene. Taking over all these performances is a frightening activity for any new actor.
What’s extra, audiences have not totally embraced Kang as a personality or the multiverse as a storytelling engine in the identical means that Thanos and the Infinity Saga did within the 2010s as a stable narrative spine. The Loki season 2 finale ties up Kang’s storyline in order that Marvel can transfer ahead with out unduly disrupting their broader plans for the multiverse saga. With this new recreation, that appears to be precisely what the studio is doing.