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Avengers 5 & 6 No Longer Releasing In The Same Year
Disney has announced that Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and Avengers: Secret Wars will release in different years. The two films are part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe's Multiverse Saga, and Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige was initially aiming to have the next Avengers films released six months apart in a one-two punch. Avengers 5 and 6 were officially announced at this year's San Diego Comic-Con, and since then, they have been steadily amassing their behind the scenes talent. As for who will be in front of the camera, that is less clear.
On Tuesday, the MCU produced a wave of release date changes. Affected films include the Blade reboot led by Mahershala Ali, which is facing the longest delay of them all by nearly a year. Now arriving on September 6, 2024, it's been reported that the Blade delay disrupted the calendar behind it. Deadpool 3, which will feature the much-hyped return of Hugh Jackman's Wolverine, is being pushed back just two months to November 8, 2024. Fantastic Four is also being rescheduled for February 14, 2025. Avengers: The Kang Dynasty is miraculously unaffected, and the plan is that the supervillain Kang the Conquerer (Jonathan Majors) will take over as the franchise's omnipresent threat after Thanos (Josh Brolin) was dispatched.
Disney also confirms that Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and Avengers: Secret Wars will now release a year apart from each other; Avengers: Secret Wars has a new date of May 1, 2026, while the Avengers: The Kang Dynasty release date stays put on May 2, 2025. These two behemoth projects mark the return of Avengers films, the last of which released in nearly 3 years ago. Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame also hit theaters in quick succession, arriving in 2018 and 2019 respectively.
Why Avengers: Secret Wars' Delay Is A Good Thing
It was announced in July that the next two Avengers films would both have 2025 releases, but the recent change of this ambitious goal may be for the better. With Kang now stepping up as the MCU's new nemesis, it'll take time for his presence to fully meld with the culture, and for audiences to forget about Thanos, if he's really gone. While it would've been impressive on the part of the filmmakers to have the two films release effectively in tandem, a year's gap between the fifth and sixth installments in the Avengers franchise will give time for the anticipation bubble to reinflate.
Avengers: The Kang Dynasty will feature Destin Daniel Cretton in the director's chair. Cretton was passed the mantle of the MCU flagship films after his success with Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania writer Jeff Loveness will pen the script for The Kang Dynasty, while Loki's Michael Waldron was recently tapped to write Avengers: Secret Wars. Given Cretton's talent for immersive, character-led stories with big stunts, and Loveness' experience with trippy, multidimensional stories, Avengers: The Kang Dynasty could be the link that unifies the multiverse aspect of the MCU, which has been only mildly praised during Phase 4. Now that there's more space between the next two Avengers movies, the MCU can properly build up its next massive conflict.
