Avengers: The Kang Dynasty loses its director

As far as big cinematic tentpoles go, few look as wobbly, at least from the outside, as Marvel’s upcoming plans for 2025 and beyond’s “Phase Six.” Parent studio Disney has already been doing a bunch of schedule shifting this month, bumping lots of movies back by several months, and clearing out the Marvel 2024 film schedule almost entirely (give or take a Deadpool 3). Now Deadline is reporting that The Kang Dynasty, slated to be the first Avengers movie to hit theaters since 2019's box office-obliterating Endgame, has now lost its director, as Destin Daniel Cretton has reportedly left the project.

From all accounts, it was an amicable split: Cretton is installed pretty firmly in Marvel’s heart at the moment, having previously directed the fun (if not world-shattering) Shang Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings, and already on deck to direct both that movie’s sequel and upcoming TV miniseries Wonder Man. And if that sounds like a pretty full plate, Cretton apparently thought so, too, with reports that he backed out of Kang Dynasty so that he could put more focus into his other Marvel stuff.

None of which makes things sound any rosier for Kang itself, which is currently sitting on a May 1, 2026 release date. And is, of course, right in the crosshairs of Marvel’s whole Jonathan Majors problem: The studio still hasn’t any made overt moves to distance itself from the actor, who was arrested on assault charges earlier this year, but with his trial set to begin on November 29, and the film carrying his character’s name literally right there in the title, it remains to be seen whether a movie that should have been the big endpoint the last four years of cinematic storytelling have been building to will hold together in the coming months.