Shang-Chi Director to Helm Next Avengers Movie

San Diego Comic-Con came with a ton of Marvel reveals, one of which was the next two Avengers movies, The Kang Dynasty and Secret Wars. Though no director was revealed for SDCC, we now have news on who is going to be helming the next MCU crossover—and it won’t be the Russo Brothers.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Destin Daniel Cretton—who directed Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings— has signed on to direct Avengers: The Kang Dynasty. No further reveals have been made about the film, but we should expect the main villain to be Jonathan Majors’ Kang, who will be taking the spotlight in Ant-Man: Quantumania.

With Cretton’s only huge film being Shang-Chi, I’m admittedly nervous that he’s going to be taking on the next Avengers film. While I am hopeful he’ll do a good job, I’m kind of afraid that he could get eaten up by the studio system—especially with a studio as controlled as Marvel is.

With Thanos coming out to be the ultimate villain of Marvel’s Infinity Saga, the search is on for Marvel’s next big baddie. With his ability to control time and jump across multiverses, Kang is capable of pretty much anything, but there is a rumor going around that Marvel is gearing up for Dr. Doom to be the next Thanos-level villain in their franchise.

Until we get an announcement, all we can do is wait; but for now, it just seems that Marvel is trying to come up with something good as fast as it can. With MCU entries expected to come out every year for movies and television, there’s no longer any time for long-term planning like the Infinity Saga had.

With Phase 4 having some rocky entries, hopefully Kevin Feige and his team find a way to properly adapt to their new release model moving forward.

Avengers: The Kang Dynasty is aiming for a release on May 2, 2025.