For years, pundits and fans assumed that the Russo Brothers would return to direct the next major Marvel ‘Avengers’ movie, especially after their phenomenal success with ‘Infinity War’ and ‘Endgame.’ But as Kevin Feige recently revealed, and the Russo brothers just illustrated with new “Gray Man” sequel announcements, they are busy, and the Marvel chief said they would be directing neither “Avengers: The Kang Dynasty” or “Avengers: Secret Wars.” So who to replace them? Someone within the Marvel family and none other than “Shang-Chi” filmmaker Destin Daniel Cretton.
THR reveals that Cretton, the director of “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings,” has officially come on board as the director for “Avengers: The Kang Dynasty,” the first of a two-part ‘Avengers’ movie that is due in theaters arrive May 2, 2025.
The second of the two-parter, “Avengers: Secret Wars,” arrives Nov. 7, 2025, and it’s currently unknown who will direct them, but it sounds like it won’t be Cretton, especially as the two films will be coming out in the same year and so closely together. The two films are part of what’s known as the Multiverse saga that will close out Marvel’s Phase 6.
It’s very likely, given that schedule, that both films will shoot simultaneously-ish, or back to back with different directors racing to get them both finished for the year long editing and VFX marathon that is one of these huge films.
What that means for “Shang Chi 2”? Well, at this point, it’s very possible that there “Shang Chi 2” won’t come out until after the Multiverse saga and while Cretton was originally going to direct it, one assumes the huge duties and responsibilities of helming a gigantic ‘Avengers’ movie likely means abdicating that throne for now. That is unless they wait until after and are ok with a “Shang Chi” sequel coming out in another two years after that (2027).
No details about “Avengers: The Kang Dynasty” are known right now other than they will feature the multiverse villain Kang, played by Jonathan Majors (“The Last Black Man In San Francisco”), first seen playing the character at the end of “Loki” season one.
Feige has promised one of the things that makes Kang so interesting and different from Thanos as a villain is that he is a multiverse bad guy, has several variant versions of himself so we will see several incarnations of the character throughout the multiverse saga. How does “Secret Wars,” based on one of the most popular comic book storylines fit in with it? That’s unknown at the moment, but if ‘Kang Dynasty’ already has a director, ‘Secret Wars’ will probably announce one too. No word on who is writing “Avengers: The Kang Dynasty,” but all of these questions may be revealed soon at D23 in September.