The new writer for Marvel’s The Kang Dynasty adds weight to Avengers 5 and 6 director rumor

Marvel has reportedly hired Michael Waldron to write the script for Avengers: The Kang Dynasty.

Per Deadline, Waldron – who was already believed to be writing Avengers: Secret Wars, aka The Kang Dynasty‘s sequel – has been drafted in to act as a creative through-line for the final two Marvel Phase 6 movies.

Waldron is no stranger to the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), with the scribe having penned the scripts for Loki season 1 and Doctor Strange 2. Those projects helped to lay the foundations for the Marvel Multiverse Saga, which spans Phases 4, 5, and 6, so it isn’t a huge surprise to see Waldron brought on board to tie the Multiverse Saga’s multiple story threads together.

Waldron’s writing credits include his work on Loki season 1. (Image credit: Marvel/Disney)

Some MCU fans have already expressed disappointment that Eric Martin, who succeeded Waldron as Loki‘s head writer, wasn’t hired instead.

Those individuals points to Martin’s superb writing on Loki season 2, which recently finished airing on Disney Plus, as well as Waldron’s messy script for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, as evidence that Martin should have been handed the keys to the Multiverse Saga. Waldron, though, is seen as a safe pair of hands by Marvel, and his work on Doctor Strange 2 – while hampered by script rewrites and reshoots amid rumored studio interference – isn’t as bad as some viewers made out.

Waldron’s hiring comes less than two weeks after Avengers: The Kang Dynasty lost its original director. Daniel Destin Cretton, who helmed Shang-Chi, was set to direct Avengers 5 following his apparent hiring in July 2022. However, Cretton is no longer thought to be involved in The Kang Dynasty, with the filmmaker moving onto other Marvel projects.

A not-so-Strange runion?

Waldron’s hiring might lend further weight to Doctor Strange 2‘s director being employed for Avengers 5 and 6. (Image credit: Marvel Studios)

Waldron’s installation as the main writer on the next two Avengers movies feels like a good fit, especially if Marvel wants to maintain a greater semblance of continuity between the films that’ll end its Multiverse Saga. The studio did likewise for Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame – two of the best Marvel movies – when it hired screenwriting duo Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely to pen those film scripts, so it has previous form for employing the same writers on back-to-back Avengers flicks.

What makes Waldron’s hiring for the fifth and sixth Avengers movies interesting, though, is the fact that it lends weight to an online rumor concerning who’ll direct them.

According to MCU leaker DanielRPK (thanks to MarvelVerse for the catch), Sam Raimi is one of Marvel’s top choices to helm The Kang Dynasty and Secret Wars. DanielRPK’s claim has been backed up by another insider – MyTimeToShineHello – who, three months earlier, suggested Raimi was in the frame to direct Secret Wars.

Why is this important? Because Raimi worked alongside Waldron on Doctor Strange 2. If Marvel thought the pair did a good job of establishing the core elements of the Marvel multiverse – and, given its near-$1 billion box office haul, it was a hit among audiences – on the Sorcerer Supreme’s second solo movie, it would make sense to re-team them on the two most biggest multiverse movies of the whole saga.

Of course, this isn’t confirmation that Raimi has been hired, but Marvel clearly liked what the Evil Dead and Spider-Man director did on his one and only MCU movie. If Waldron and Raimi can recapture that supposed magic in Avengers 5 and 6, thereby getting audiences back into theaters and helping Marvel rake in billions of dollars – which it did on Infinity War and Endgame – it’ll be a job well done, and will potentially see both movies added to our best superhero movies guide. We wait for an official confirmation with bated breath.

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