Marvel Moving Away From Kang, Quantumania Writer Off Avengers 5: Report

The Kang Dynasty may be over at Marvel Studios. According to Vanity Fair reporter and MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios co-author Joanna Robinson on the House of R podcast, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania screenwriter Jeff Loveness is no longer working for Marvel or attached to pen the fifth Avengers movie, titled Avengers: The Kang Dynasty. Robinson reported that Loveness is off the project because Marvel is likely "moving away" from the Kang storyline that threaded both seasons of Disney+ series Loki, the Ant-Man threequel, and future installments of the Multiverse Saga, including Kang Dynasty and the phase-ending Avengers: Secret Wars.

Quantumania launched Phase 5 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and introduced Jonathan Majors' Kang the Conqueror as a multiversal variant of He Who Remains, also played by Majors, who reigned over the timelines in Loki. (Spoiler alert: season 2 of Loki ended with Tom Hiddleston's Loki replacing He Who Remains at the End of Time, only to then weave together the branched timelines and preserve the infinitely-scaling multiverse.)

With the Time Variance Authority freed from the control of He Who Remains, TVA Agent Mobius M. Mobius (Owen Wilson) and Hunter B-15 (Wunmi Mosaku) began tracking down HWR variants. The Loki finale referenced Kang and the events of Quantumania when Mobius mentioned that one variant — Kang — "caused a little bit of a ruckus on 616-adjacent realm, but they handled it."

Variety previously reported that the "most pressing issue" at a recent studio retreat was Majors' assault trial. Because Majors' Kang has been positioned as the new Thanos, Marvel has been "forced to reconsider its plans to center the next phase" of the MCU on the character and reportedly considered recasting Majors or pivoting to another major Marvel villain entirely: Doctor Doom. 

"No, nothing affected our finale," Loki executive producer Kevin Wright told ComicBook when asked about reports Marvel was reconfiguring its plans for Kang. "The story that is on screen is the one that we set out to make, remarkably so. No one was coming down telling us we had to connect or set up anything for the future. It was sort of like, 'Finish our story that we started.' As far as where it's all going, I can't say. Not because I'm being coy, [but because] we're not part of those projects."

Loki season 1 and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness writer Michael Waldron was tapped to write Avengers: Secret Wars, which will conclude Phase 6 of the MCU and the Multiverse Saga. Both seasons warned that the variants of He Who Remains would unleash a reality-destroying multiversal war if left unchecked.

"I know Michael Waldron is working on them, and he loves, obviously, this world [of Loki], as he helped create it. The threat that we establish at the end of [the Loki finale] is: multiversal war will come," Wright said. "Sylvie is saying, 'Let us have a chance.' So I hope that people continue to run with that, because I would love to see what that story is."

Disney recently reshuffled its Marvel Studios slate, delaying Deadpool 3 (from May 2024 to July 2024), Captain America: Brave New World (from July 2024 to February 2025), Thunderbolts (from December 2024 to July 2025), and the Blade reboot (from February 2025 to November 2025). Originally dated for May 2, 2025, and November 7, 2025, The Kang Dynasty and Secret Wars are currently dated for May 1, 2026, and May 7, 2027.