Marvel Studios made their grand return to San Diego Comic-Con after a three-year absence due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and certainly did not disappoint. While it was originally believed they would only be showcasing stuff for She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 and would save any big announcements for D23 in September, Marvel Studios opted to go all out this year.
Given it had been three years since San Diego Comic-Con 2019 where they first unveiled Phase 4, and the release of Thor: Love and Thunder marked the final film in that initial slate of announcements, Marvel Studios laid out their plans for what they are now dubbing The Multiverse Saga which is Phase 4, 5, and 6. Phase 4 now will conclude in 2022 with She-Hulk: Attorney At Law and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, and the entirety of Phase 5 has been mapped out with release dates for Blade, Captain America: New World Order, and various Disney+ streaming series announced. However, Marvel Studios wanted one big final pop, and they announced Phase 6, which kicks off with Fantastic Four in 2024 and will conclude with two Avengers movies in 2025: Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and Avengers: Secret Wars.
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By the time these two Avengers films open, it will have been six years since Avengers: Endgame hit theaters and shattered box office records. While Phases 1, 2, and 3 typically concluded with an Avengers film, giving each Phase a point it was building to, the studio has decided now to hold off on that for Phases 4 and 5, to make the wait and anticipation for the teams’ grand return to the MCU an event. What do these titles mean for the Avengers films? What can audiences expect? Here is a full breakdown.
Avengers: The Kang Dynasty
Marvel Comics
First up is Avengers: The Kang Dynasty, which is set to open on May 5, 2025, on that coveted first weekend of May that Marvel loves so much. Kang Dynasty was a comic book storyline published from 2001 to 2022 in The Avengers comic run by writer Kurt Busiek and illustrated by Alan Davis, Kieron Dwyer, Ivan Reis, and Manuel Garcia. The story involves the villain Kang the Conqueror arriving from the future to take over Earth with his massive army; Kang wins but is eventually defeated by The Avengers
This felt like a film Marvel had been building to all through Phase 4, as Loki introduced a variant of Kang the Conqueror (Jonathan Majors) in its season finale as He Who Remains. That variant hinted that there would be other more dangerous variants. The character will appear as the primary villain in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and likely be a major threat in season two of Loki. The decision for the storyline raises a lot of interesting possibilities for a future Avengers film.
The basic premise involves Kang taking control of the planet, meaning if Marvel Studios keeps that concept, the Avengers will be at a disadvantage. They’d have to work more like Resistance and freedom fighters in a post-apocalyptic landscape than the normal tactical advantage they normally have as the world’s premier superhero team. Since Kang is one of the most iconic Avengers villains, it only makes sense that he be the villain that reunites a new team of heroes.
Avengers: Secret Wars
This is the big one, as Avengers: Secret Wars is set to open in theaters on November 7, 2025. Secret Wars is the name of two highly influential Marvel comic events. The first was published from 1984 to 1985 and was written by Jim Shooter with art by Mike Zeck and Bob Layton, and featured multiple Marvel heroes and villains transported to a planet called Battleworld by an alien to do battle with one another. The second was a 2015 event comic written by Jonathan Hickman and art by Esad Ribić that sees the Marvel multiverse destroyed in a grand event only to be rebuilt into a composite world by Doctor Doom.
The film will likely adapt the later event, as it was teased in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness with the word ‘incursions’ and the fact that the film is supposed to conclude The Multiverse Saga, suggesting in Avengers: Secret War the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe is destroyed and rebuilt into a composite with other Marvel multiverse aspects as part of it, including Fox’s X-Men franchise, elements from various animated series, and past actors from other franchises appearing like Chris Evans but not as Captain America but instead the Human Torch or Nicolas Cage as Ghost Rider.
The Avengers and the End of the Multiverse Saga
The other big clue is that Phase 6 begins with Fantastic Four, and will conclude with Avengers: Secret Wars. While Secret Wars is hyped as a big multiversal comic, the core premise of the story is focused on The Fantastic Four and Doctor Doom. It appears The Fantastic Four may have an important part to play, and with rumors suggesting that Doctor Doom will appear in the end credits of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, it suggests that Avengers: The Kang Dynasty will end with Kang being defeated, but by Doctor Doom, who could use the character’s technology to rewrite the multiverse setting him up as the ultimate villain.
With this film being the end of The Multiverse Saga, Avengers: Secret Wars might be used to give the MCU a soft reboot, allowing the franchise to bring back and recast classic characters, make changes to the franchise history, bring in actors from past franchises, and also might serve as an easy explanation for the X-Men in the MCU.
Marvel Might Just Be Using The Names
It is worth noting how Marvel Studios tends to make their films in terms of adaptations. While both Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and Avengers: Secret Wars are both titles of popular comic events, that does not mean Marvel Studios will adapt them 100% or even at all, sometimes using the title’s basic theme or conceit while crafting their own story that works within the MCU. Captain America: Civil War takes the basic outline of a registration act pitting superheroes against each other, with one side led by Captain America and another by Iron Man from the 2006 event comic Civil War, but changes all the details around it and crafts its own narrative. Avengers: Infinity War takes the epic-sounding name from the Infinity War comic but is more an adaptation of Infinity Gauntlet, Infinity, and The Thanos Quest. Avengers: Age of Ultron doesn’t take any elements from the Age of Ultron event and crafts an entirely new story but recognizes the title is eye-catching.
All that to say that while Marvel Studios might be using those epic-sounding titles, they likely will be less singular adaptations of those stories and instead use multiple different comics for inspiration and to make the story fit within what has been built up in the MCU.
Release Dates of Next Avengers Movies
Marvel Studios
This is one of the most interesting elements to come out of the announcement, that both Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and Avengers: Secret Wars will be released in 2025, just six months apart from one another. This suggests that the events of these two Avengers movies are even more closely connected than Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, which were released one year apart.
This six-month gap is very similar to back in 2003 with The Matrix Reloaded in May and The Matrix Revolutions in November, or even the release windows between Back to the Future Part II which was released in November 1989 and Back to the Future Part III which was released in May 1990.
It is entirely possible that Marvel Studios pushes the release of Avengers: Secret Wars back to give the two films a year of breathing room. The Avengers was originally supposed to open in 2011 alongside Captain America: The First Avenger but was delayed a year, and even Avengers: Endgame was originally named Avengers: Infinity War Part II before the studio changed the name to make it feel more like a standalone picture. Nonetheless, these Avengers movies are three years away, which gives them both plenty of time, but in a sense, they’ll also be arriving sooner than one might expect; after all it’s already been three years since Avengers: Endgame.
