Kang was supposed to be the big bad of the Multiverse Saga in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. That didn’t work out, as actor Jonathan Majors was fired following an assault and harassment conviction. He only appeared in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and Loki. As a result, what was originally announced as Avengers: The Kang Dynasty became Avengers: Doomsday. Had things gone according to plan, the Young Avengers would have united to take down Kang – or a variant of him anyway.
Writer Michael Waldon (Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness) recently participated in a Reddit AMA. He was due to write The Kang Dynasty before everything changed. When asked about his plans during the AMA, the writer revealed an interesting part of the movie’s plot. Here’s what he had to say about it.
“Jeff Loveness and I spent an afternoon pitching on the Young Avengers defeating a version of Kang and being so stoked about it…only to discover that that particular Kang carried a little card that said to Be Patient with him, it was his first day as a Kang. And then they were so bummed. I think he was gonna be the Lizard Kang from the end of Kang Dynasty? I don’t know. Anyway we had fun.”
The Young Avengers have been teased for the MCU for years. No official plans are in place yet but there are plenty of players on the board. Those players include Ms. Marvel, Kate Bishop and Yelena Belova, among others. It’s unclear what the team Waldron describes would have looked like but it’s a window into what could have been.
Instead, we’re going to get former Iron Man actor Robert Downey Jr. as Doctor Doom. He’s just one part of the massive cast for Doomsday, which is currently in production. Joe and Anthony Russo (Avengers: Endgame) are directing the movie, as well as Avengers: Secret Wars, which will bring the Multiverse Saga to a close in 2028.
Here is the synopsis for Avengers: Doomsday.
“Doctor Doom has officially arrived in the MCU. This villain, a master of cutting-edge science and powerful magic, will unleash a cascading crisis across the entire multiverse.”
“We we had started to realize that Kang wasn’t big enough, wasn’t Thanos, and that there was only one character that could be that, because he was that in the comics for decades and decades,” Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige said at a press conference over the summer (via THR). “Because of the Fox acquisition, we finally had it, and it was Doctor Doom. So we had started talking about Doctor Doom even before we officially pivoted from Kang. In fact, I had started talking with Robert [Downey Jr.] about this audacious idea before Ant-Man 3 even came out. It was a long plan that we had, to take one of our greatest characters and utilize one of our greatest actors.”
Avengers: Doomsday is set to hit theaters on December 18, 2026.
What do you think? Are you excited for Doomsday? Or would you have preferred The Kang Dynasty? Join in on the conversation over on Facebook or Twitter!
