Marvel Appears to Officially Give Kang the Boot With ‘Avengers: Doomsday’
It's complicated.
After years of wondering what’s next for Marvel Studios, it seems like the company’s president Kevin Feige is finally getting his ducks in a row, taking to San Diego Comic-Con over the weekend to help the Russo Bros. announce the next Avengers project. But what about the Kang-sized elephant in the room?
Ah, San Diego Comic-Con. From fans skirmishing over ticketed wristbands to mile-long bathroom lines to dozens (literally, dozens) of celebrity appearances, it’s quite the spectacle—and Marvel’s annual Hall H panel is the crown jewel of the whole thing. Given last year’s con was parred down due to the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, anticipation was certainly high for this year’s presentation. Would we learn more about the MCU Fantastic Four reboot? Thunderbolts? Captain America: Brave New World?
Most importantly, however, the question hot on everyone’s mind went a little something like this: “What the hell is going on with Avengers 5?” Luckily, Kevin Feige and Co. came prepared with answers, but I think we’re all a bit befuddled by what we think is supposed to stand in place of the ill-fated Avengers: The Kang Dynasty.
What happened to Avengers: The Kang Dynasty?
As mentioned, SDCC 2024 came with some big announcements, one of them being that the Russo brothers—who helmed the latter of the four Avengers movies—are returning to the MCU. Now, Avengers 5 has been reworked into Avengers: Doomsday starring the far less controversial Robert Downey Jr. as Victor von Doom (you’re confused, I’m confused, we’re all confused). You don’t need me to rehash the whole Jonathan Majors scandal, but in short, Marvel cut ties with the Kang actor after he was convicted of assaulting and harassing his ex-girlfriend, and it sure looks like he isn’t being welcomed back.
Not only was Majors’ trial a wildly bad look for Marvel from a PR angle, but it also threw a wrench in the studio’s plans for its next Thanos-level threat. At this point, we’d already spent two seasons of the Disney+ Loki show and the entirety of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania getting to know this character, so clearly, Marvel had big plans for him. During SDCC 2022, Avengers: The Kang Dynasty was confirmed to be the next Avengers team-up project, but with the recent announcement of Doomsday, it looks like Kang has officially been kicked to the curb. Womp, womp.
Kang’s Marvel exit leaves more questions than answers: will he be recast?
Look, it’s not exactly surprising that Marvel Studios is choosing to move in a different direction with Doctor Doom for the remainder of the Multiverse Saga, but Kang’s exit does leave some glaring plot holes. I mean, what happened to the Council of Kangs we saw at the end of Quantumania? And how is the franchise going to explain away Victor Timely’s involvement with the TVA in Loki season 2, on top of the fact that a bunch of Kang variants are just freely roaming the Multiverse? Obviously, Avengers 5 will be very different than originally conceived, but only time will tell if the Russos can pull it off. This is no easy task—even for the guys who made the Infinity Saga such an unprecedented success.
It’s important to remember that Marvel could hypothetically recast Kang down the line, with Doctor Doom likely being the more powerful or relevant of the two supervillains. For months now, fans have speculated about who could replace Majors as the time-traveling baddie, with Colman Domingo and John Boyega’s names both being thrown around at one point or another. However, it seems like these rumors are dead in the water with the confirmation of Doomsday, though Marvel, interestingly enough, still has yet to wipe The Kang Dynasty from its phase 6 release slate (according to its website, at least).
During Marvel’s Hall H panel, Feige neglected to even mention Kang or the scrapped plans for his first Avengers outing. But the Avengers: Doomsday news seems proof enough that this will be the movie to lead up to the highly-anticipated Avengers: Secret Wars, both of which are scheduled to arrive in 2026 and 2027, respectively. Does this answer the MCU’s Kang problem? No. But either audiences will just have to overlook his absence moving forward, or be open-minded to a potential recast. We can only hope that Doomsday is a worthy replacement.
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