All you need to know about Avengers: The Kang Dynasty
Avengers 5 has been in the pipeline for a while, but recent events in the Marvel universe have led us closer to understanding what exactly the film, titled Avengers: The Kang Dynasty, will look like.
The title was confirmed during Marvel's massive Comic-Con 2022 panel where we were told that we're getting not one, but two Avengers movies. Avengers: Secret Wars was set to follow in November 2025, although it's since been pushed back to May 2026.
Avengers: Secret Wars will bring an end to Marvel's The Multiverse Saga, but let's not get too far ahead of ourselves just yet.
Here's everything you need to know about Avengers: The Kang Dynasty.
Avengers 5 release date: When can we expect Avengers The Kang Dynasty?
Avengers: The Kang Dynasty will be out in cinemas on May 2, 2025 assuming there are no shifts to the release schedule.
As mentioned above, Avengers: Secret Wars was set to follow on November 7, 2025, but it'll now arrive in cinemas a year after the fifth movie on May 5, 2026.
We don't yet know when filming will take place, but we do know that Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania writer Jeff Loveness is writing the script and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings' Destin Daniel Cretton will direct.
Avengers 5 cast: Who could be in Avengers The Kang Dynasty?
Given the title, it's likely Jonathan Majors' Kang will feature, but who beyond that will be in it is anyone's guess.
The original Avengers team has been almost completely deconstructed – Black Widow and Iron Man are dead, Captain America is an old man and Thor has jetted off into space with the Guardians.
But it's well established in movies and comics that the Avengers line-up is fluid. Practically any MCU hero could be drafted at any point.
If Brie Larson's Captain Marvel is going to take the lead of the MCU as suggested – assuming Marvel can work out what to do with her other than send her across the galaxy intermittently – then she's going to need a team to lead.
If not the Avengers, who? (Don't say the Defenders, please.)
Sam Wilson is Falcon no longer, having taken up the mantle of Captain America, while Hawkeye and Hulk make up the remaining heroes from the original line-up. Anthony Mackie, who plays Wilson, thinks it's unlikely he'll end up leading this new iteration of the Avengers – he told Empire Magazine: "Sam is the only character without superpowers. He's just a regular dude hanging out with a bunch of weirdos."
Other heroes like Spider-Man, Valkyrie, War Machine, Winter Soldier and Doctor Strange are still about in the MCU, but there are plenty of candidates for a new version of the team.
There have been rumours that films based on New Avengers, Young Avengers and the evil version of the team, the Dark Avengers, are in development. Marvel could go with the West Coast Avengers, or even the satirical Great Lakes Avengers.
Any of these would offer an opportunity to continue and refresh the Avengers legacy. In particular, introducing the Young Avengers would be a positive step in the continued path towards representation Marvel has long struggled with.
America Chavez comes out as a lesbian in Young Avengers vol 15. Wiccan, one of Scarlet Witch's kids, also comes out as gay and dates another young Avenger, Hulkling. The group also consists of Prodigy, a bisexual hero of African-American origin and Nor-Varr, a 'not completely straight' character who dates Kate Bishop.
To include these characters in the MCU would begin to shape an accurate reflection of society today – letting people of all backgrounds see themselves as superheroes.
Kate Bishop joined the MCU in the Disney+ show Hawkeye and since the TV shows are now part of the universe in a bigger way than before, it could mean they're all paving the way for the Young Avengers to be introduced.
She is one of the founding members of the Young Avengers, after all, and introducing her in a TV series and then setting her up for a big-screen debut seems like a safe bet.
Wanda Maximoff was mooted as Avengers 5’s big bad at one point, according to screenwriter Michael Waldron (via The Direct).
Originally, there wasn't a plan to make her a villain from the get-go in Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness, saving her turn for a team-up piece. "It was always like, 'Well that'll happen in an Avengers movie or something.' My perspective was, 'Why are we letting some other movie get the best villain ever?'," he said.
"I think originally, there was a version where Wanda was maybe gonna turn bad at the end. That was a big change that I made and had a strong perspective on."
So, maybe no Wanda for Avengers 5, but it sounds like Chris Hemsworth's Thor will appear in in some capacity, at least. Unless his interview with Wired contained a slip of the tongue.
Discussing the early days of the franchise, Hemsworth catapulted himself into the future. "I didn't really know, none of us did, if it was gonna work, or if there was gonna be an extension beyond that first film into Thor 2, 3, 4 or Avengers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5," Hemsworth said. "It was all just an idea and a dream. And one that I was on board with." Yeah, sounds like he's signed up to it to us.
Don't necessarily expect to see either the Fantastic Four or Mahershala Ali's Blade crop up. Jeff Loveness let slip, in an interview with Gizmodo, that "I’m probably not even using those characters, you know" – although he followed that up with the explanation that he's still open to what other writers are planning with their characters, so it's certainly still a possibility.
The same goes for the X-Men, who have been on the cards since Disney acquired 20th Century Fox. He told ComicBook.com's Phase Zero podcast: "No, no, no. I think that’s being saved for a bit. But, you know, these Avengers are in trouble. They got a lot going on with Kang. They got more than enough to handle."
Avengers 5 plot: What will Avengers 5 be about?
While nothing's official yet, Ant-Man and the Wasp Quantumania did dedicate a lot of screentime to establishing who Kang is and what he might be after. The Kang we met in the Quantum Realm, who was attempting to escape back into normal-sized reality, was seemingly crushed to death.
But, the film's mid-credit scene revealed an entire council of Kangs, including the real big bad, Immortus, who, having summoned 'all of us' Kangs, rallies them by saying, "They will take everything we built, so let's stop wasting time." Presumably, this is exactly what Kang Dynasty will be building off of.
Avengers 5 trailer: When will we see an Avengers The Kang Dynasty trailer?
We've only just been granted our first confirmation that Avengers: The Kang Dynasty is happening at all, so it's going to be a while before any footage is released.
Sorry about that.
Avengers: The Kang Dynasty is released in cinemas on May 2, 2025.
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