Marvel's Avengers 5, initially teased at San Diego Comic-Con as Avengers: The Kang Dynasty, was almost certainly a guaranteed title, after the whopping success of the mega-successful superhero franchise. Kevin Feige and Marvel Studios would surely want to repeat that success for an epic blockbuster series that has become just as synonymous with escapism and pop culture as Star Wars. But with the casting of Jonathan Majors as Marvel's next big bad Kang, Marvel has seen some heavy controversy as real-life issues revolving around Majors threaten to bring down this seemingly once unstoppable epic tent-pole.

However, it would seem that Marvel's planned story arc, for The Kang Dynasty were disrupted when Jonathan Majors was arrested in New York City back in March, leading to a long trial and delays in Marvel's plans to cast and announce their upcoming Avengers film. After all, Jonathan Major's character's name is in the title.

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The Golden Age of Marvel

With Avengers: Endgame, which not only scored hugely with critics but became one of the highest grossing films of all time, Marvel spent seven of those years teasing their big-bad, the Mad Titan, Thanos, which climaxed with him taking on the Avengers and setting the precedent for how a franchise can build out their sequels-while keeping the stories fresh, interconnected and engaging.

Marvel Studios became one of the Great Pillars in Hollywood History from 2008 to 2019 with a groundbreaking release strategy that saw the studio build out twenty individual blockbusters released over an eleven-year period that told a cohesive story all building up to a climactic finale with Avengers Endgame.

Marvel's Recent Downfall

In recent years, however, Marvel has seen those once respected mega towers fall with controversy, poorly produced CGI, due to rushed and switched release dates, an overuse of popular characters and cameos over good stories, and an overall dilution of the product audiences once knew and loved - mostly as the company switched to introducing streaming shows on Disney Plus, which led to Marvel Studios losing their trusted brand quality. Audiences used to seek out Marvel movies because they were unmissable events. Associated with great characters, storytelling, and always a little Easter egg, to excite for the next project. Now Marvel's become more synonymous with rushed production, poor visual effects, unfair hours for VFX artists, and bad writing.

Avengers 5 Needs to Be Great

Marvel's lost trust in their fans, and it's shown by depleting box office numbers and dwindling reviews for current projects. A fifth Avengers film could be key to fixing all of this, since The Avengers is one of their most profitable assets, but now with Jonathan Majors out for good due to his assault convictions, Marvel will need to seek a villain elsewhere. There are many other routes they can take.

How this could affect Avengers 5

Right now, Marvel is trying to figure out how they can quickly rework their project which was so heavily based around Major's Kang The Conqueror. Marvel's previous movies featured one-off bad guys, such as those played by Mads Mikkelsen, Jeff Bridges, Mickey Rourke, Christian Bale and even Gary Shandling. However, Jonathan Majors has already been featured in three Marvel Projects and has been set up as a major threat who will return. Despite Ant-Man Quantumania's post credit scene which hints at a battle arena full of Kangs, ready to escape from The Quantum Realm, Marvel can either ignore this post credits scene, embrace it, or go with a variety of other options they have available to them.

Marvel's Alternate Options: Another Big Bad

Marvel already has a roster of villains, fans and audiences are familiar with, and with an upcoming Fantastic Four movie in the works and set to be released sometime around May 2025, there is an opportunity for the story to be tweaked to feature Doctor Doom as a major villain, and possibly as a threat to appear in future movies. It's been reported that Doctor Doom will make an appearance in Fantastic Four, and he has already appeared in three previous films unconnected to the MCU. There's no doubt that audiences would enjoy seeing his return. Although there is the question --if it is too soon to introduce such a major character-for such a long-term plan.

A Villain's Quick Introduction Could Work

Thanos, the Mad Titan, was introduced in The Avengers all the way back in 2012, in the post credits-scene. It took seven years to build him up properly, in order to go from a purple glove-wearing space menace from Jim Starlin's comic book, that most casual film-goers hadn't heard of, into one of the most recognizable and iconic movie villains of all time. However, Loki was introduced in Thor in 2011, and appeared the following year in The Avengers, as the main villain. He only needed one year for audiences to become familiar with him- and The Avengers became one of the most successful films of all time- and launched the MCU into the huge brand it is now. This villain introduction formula, with strong writing and a great tie in to the main Avengers arc could be applied to Doctor Doom. It did work once.

The Variant Option

Finding an actor with the charisma and mannerisms to play the villain might be difficult in the short term, but the story grants Marvel this choice if they want to take this route. There surely are other great actors capable of taking on this role. After all, Majors only appeared as Kang in one movie. Introducing another variant of him in The Kang Dynasty shouldn't be confusing to most audiences. The option to recast Kang is still in the air -otherwise, the Ant-Man Quantumania post credits scene could be largely ignored if they decide not to go this route.

The other solution to Marvel's woes might be not to change the Kang arc at all. The filmmakers could leave the story exactly as it is, while still recasting Kang. Marvel's already introduced the idea that there are hundreds if not thousands of different versions of Kang in the MCU. Ant-Man Quantumania's post-credits show all the different versions of Kang played by Jonathan Majors, and it would seem that if Marvel was very set on still engaging with the Kang story line, they could simply recast the actor which would work in the context that there are many different versions of "Kang".

Avengers 5 will still be released

Despite this lengthy setback, Avengers 5 is still a major priority at Marvel Studios, and they will be going ahead with this film whether they have to recast The Kang Character or go with another villain. While the film is tentatively set for release in 2026, with the delays in production and now the casting, this could all change quicker than The Mad Titan's snap.

MCU

The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) is a sprawling movie and television franchise that weaves together individual stories of superheroes including Captain America, Thor, Spider-Man, Hulk, Black Widow, and many more. The first film in the franchise, Iron Man, was released in 2008. The MCU has garnered critical praise and financial success, earning billions at the box office and becoming a cultural phenomenon.

Cast

Robert Downey Jr. , Chris Evans , Chris Hemsworth , Scarlett Johansson , Mark Ruffalo , Jeremy Renner , Chadwick Boseman , Zoe Saldana , Chris Pratt , Tom Hiddleston , Iman Vellani

TV Show(s)

WandaVision , The Falcon and the Winter Soldier , Loki , Ms. Marvel , She-Hulk

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