In 2012, there was an idea: to bring together a group of remarkable people to see if they could become something more. The culmination of that idea resulted in The Avengers (2012), a cinematic crossover event the likes of which the world had never seen before. Built on a multitude of well-received films including Iron Man (2008), The Incredible Hulk (2008), Iron Man 2 (2010), Thor (2011), and Captain America: The First Avenger (2011), the first of what would become many Avengers films officially made the Marvel Cinematic Universe a wildly successful experiment, racking in over 1.5 billion dollars at the global box office. That film set off the real beginnings of the grand MCU story, now referred to as the Infinity Saga, which received a dynamite conclusion with Avengers: Infinity War (2018) and Avengers: Endgame (2019). Now, several years later, one question remains: where does the MCU go next? We knew that it would be quite some time before we saw all of Marvel’s heroes unite again, but that’s set to change in a few years. Avengers: The Kang Dynasty (2025) was confirmed at San Diego Comic-Con 2022 to be the fifth installment of the Avengers franchise, and will once again be the first half of a two-part story.
As the title implies, this film will cement the dreaded Kang the Conqueror (Jonathan Majors) as Marvel’s next big bad, bringing with him all sorts of chaos and madness to the conclusion of the Multiverse Saga. Even though The Kang Dynasty is the conclusion of Phase 6 and we’ve only just started with Phase 5, we’re slowly but surely getting more and more details about what’s in store for Marvel’s next major event. To learn more about the film’s cast, crew, release date, and more, here is everything we know about Avengers: The Kang Dynasty.
Editor’s Note: This article was updated on November 17.
Does ‘Avengers: The Kang Dynasty’ Have a Trailer Yet?
Don’t expect to see any footage from Avengers: The Kang Dynasty any time soon. Filming hasn’t even begun for the hotly anticipated project yet so the only piece of promotional material is the logo for the film that we got to see following its announcement at SDCC 2022, complete with blue coloring in honor of its titular bad guy.
When Will ‘Avengers: The Kang Dynasty’ Be Released?
The age of a multiverse conquering tyrant will officially begin when Avengers: The Kang Dynasty arrives on May 1, 2026. The movie was previously scheduled to come out on May 2, 2025. Given the sheer amount of money that the last four Avengers films made at the box office, Avengers: The Kang Dynasty will almost certainly be a theatrical release. As for streaming, if the pattern for MCU theater to streaming schedules persists, we can also almost certainly expect to see Avengers: The Kang Dynasty exclusively arrive on the new streaming service being formed by merging Disney+ and Hulu roughly a month and a half after its theatrical premiere.
What’s ‘Avengers: The Kang Dynasty’ About (And What’s the Comic Book Background)?
Like Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: The Kang Dynasty gets its namesake from a landmark Marvel Comics event series, and it’s easy to presume that the film adaptation will take some inspiration from the comics. Before we give a brief recap, keep in mind that the following plot details could end up making their way into the film and be considered spoilers. If you want to go into Avengers: The Kang Dynasty completely blind, you may want to skip this section.
First things first, who exactly is Kang the Conqueror? Although the Kang Dynasty comic began in 2001, Kang has been causing trouble in the mainline Marvel Comics universe ever since the 1960s. Kang comes from an entirely different universe and time period from the mainline Marvel universe, Earth 616. Hailing from the thirtieth century, he also has a shocking connection to one of Marvel’s most famous heroes. That’s because Kang’s real name is Nathaniel Richards, and he’s the descendant of none other than Reed Richards, AKA Mister Fantastic, AKA the smartest man alive, and AKA the leader of the Fantastic Four. Like Thanos, Kang sees himself not as a villain, but as a savior. His brilliant intellect led to him becoming dissatisfied with the peaceful life of his time, stealing the time-travel technology created by another ancestor of his (Doctor Victor von Doom), and after seeing various timelines and dimensions that end in pain and suffering, he became mad with the thought that the only way the multiverse can be saved is if he has complete and total dominion over it.
Since his debut in the 1960s, Kang and many alternate versions of Kang have tangled with Marvel’s heroes, but he easily got closest to succeeding in his conquest of Earth-616 during The Kang Dynasty. The Conqueror, along with his son Scarlet Centurion, the most advanced army he’s ever assembled, and even some supervillains who declared loyalty to him, declared war on Earth and all its citizens. The Avengers valiantly fought against him, but Kang slowly but surely gained control of the dimension, even incinerating Washington D.C. completely and massacring millions. For a brief time, the heroes had no choice but to surrender, meaning Kang had finally won. As you might expect, The Avengers were able to regroup and capture Kang before he could do more harm, but this still doesn’t change the fact that the blue tyrant had left his mark on the world in a horrific fashion, making him one of Earth’s deadliest enemies.
What Do We Know About the MCU’s Version of Kang So Far?
Technically, we got our first introduction of Kang in the conclusion of the appropriately time-melting Loki (2021-), though the one who calls himself He Who Remains (Jonathan Majors) is an alternate version of the Conqueror. He Who Remains was the man responsible for the creation of the so-called “Sacred Timeline” as well as the Time Variance Authority who keeps it in check, creating for himself a timeline where everything happened a specific way. When he’s confronted by Loki (Tom Hiddleston) and Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino), He Who Remains tells them that prior to the Sacred Timeline’s creation, various variants of himself battled for control of the multiverse, resulting in countless casualties and the destruction of entire dimensions. He Who Remains came out as the victor, but still being fundamentally human, he’s grown bored with running the multiverse and allows Sylvie to kill him, knowing full well that this will unleash Kang and his other variants on the multiverse.
In February 2023, we finally got a proper introduction to Kang the Conqueror when he officially arrived in the MCU multiverse as the main villain of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023). In the movie, we learn that Kang (or rather, this version of Kang) has been imprisoned in the Quantum Realm for a long time. That particular variant of the Conqueror is left trapped in the Quantum Realm, but the film’s end-credits scene reveals that the people who exiled the villain there in the first place were a council of variant Kangs, revealing that there are infinitely more Kangs in the Multiverse to deal with. Another variant of Kang appears in the recently released Loki Season 2, but to avoid spoilers, we won’t be discussing that part of the story here. You can read about it in this article though.
What’s the Latest Update on the Crew of ‘Avengers: The Kang Dynasty’?
At the moment, Avengers: The Kang Dynasty is between directors, after Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings‘ Destin Daniel Cretton, who was previously attached to direct, left the film in order to focus on other projects. Shang-Chi has been consistently praised as one of the best films of Marvel’s Phase 4 due to its strong character moments and impeccable action set pieces, so Cretton’s involvement was a highlight for many fans. The director is still set to helm Shang-Chi 2, which is expected to be released prior to The Kang Dynasty in Phase 6, and the Wonder Man series starring Yahya Abdul-Mateen II. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania writer Jeff Loveness was reported to be penning the script, but there are reports that Loveness may have left the project as well. As always, Marvel Studios Head Kevin Feige will be executive producing the film, which, until a new director and/or writer is announced, is the one thing we can all be sure of about the crew.
Do We Know Who’s Starring in the ‘Avengers: The Kang Dynasty’ Cast?
The main cast for Avengers: The Kang Dynasty has yet to be revealed. Originally, it seemed like Jonathan Majors would undoubtedly be in the film as Kang the Conqueror. However, following the actor being charged with domestic violence and assault, this has become somewhat doubtful. As for the film’s roster of Avengers that will appear, we can only assume that it will be massive. There are still quite a few films and shows to air prior to The Kang Dynasty so there’s no way to tell who for certain will appear, but we can list off quite a few guesses as to who may show up to fight Kang.
These heroic protagonists who could show up include *inhale* Spider-Man (Tom Holland), Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen), White Vision (Paul Bettany), Photon (Teyonah Parris), Captain America (Anthony Mackie), Loki, The Watcher (Jeffery Wright), Shang-Chi (Simu Liu), the Eternals (Gemma Chan, Angelina Jolie, Kumail Nanjiani, Lia McHugh, Brian Tyree Henry, Lauren Ridloff, and Barry Keoghan), Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld), Moon Knight (Oscar Isaac), Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch), America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez), Ms. Marvel (Iman Vellani), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Werewolf by Night (Gael García Bernal), She-Hulk (Tatiana Maslany), Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Black Panther (Letitia Wright), Ant-Man, the Wasp, Stature (Kathryn Newton), Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), the Guardians of the Galaxy (Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Bradley Cooper, Vin Diesel, Karen Gillan, Pom Klementieff, and Sean Gunn), Echo (Alaqua Cox), Captain Marvel (Brie Larson), Ironheart (Dominique Thorne), Agatha Harkness (Kathryn Hahn), Daredevil (Charlier Cox), the Thunderbolts (Florence Pugh, Olga Kurylenko, Hannah John-Kamen, David Harbour, and Wyatt Russell), Blade (Mahershala Ali), Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds), War Machine (Don Cheadle), and the Fantastic Four *exhale*. You know… just to name a few.
Will ‘Avengers: The Kang Dynasty’ Get a Sequel?
Oh yes, as Avengers: The Kang Dynasty is only part one of a two-part story. The second part is Avengers: Secret Wars (2026), based on the iconic comic series of the same name. Now, technically there are two different comic events called Secret Wars, but the upcoming film is expected to be an adaptation of the 2015 story, one so massive and ambitious that even hardcore fans consider it unadaptable. Despite this, Marvel will still try to accomplish the impossible by bringing Secret Wars to the big screen one year after The Kang Dynasty on May 7, 2027.
