Draft:Avengers 5

Avengers 5 is an upcoming American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics superhero team the Avengers. Produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, it is intended to be the fifth film in the Avengers film series following Avengers: Endgame (2019), and the 39th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). The film is being written by Michael Waldron, and will star Benedict Cumberbatch and Jeremy Renner.

Two new Avengers films, The Kang Dynasty and Secret Wars, were announced in July 2022 as the conclusion of the MCU's Phase Six and "The Multiverse Saga". Destin Daniel Cretton was hired to direct The Kang Dynasty and Jonathan Majors was set to reprise his MCU role as Kang the Conqueror. Jeff Loveness joined the film as writer that September. In November 2023, Cretton departed, Waldron replaced Loveness as writer, and Marvel was considering moving away from the Kang storyline, in part due to Majors's legal issues; Majors was fired the following month, by which time the film was being called Avengers 5. Filming is expected to begin in early 2025 in the United Kingdom.

Avengers 5 is scheduled to be released in the United States on May 1, 2026, as part of Phase Six of the MCU. Secret Wars is set to be released on May 7, 2027.

Cast

 * Benedict Cumberbatch as Dr. Stephen Strange: A neurosurgeon who became a Master of the Mystic Arts following a career-ending car accident.
 * Jeremy Renner as Clint Barton / Hawkeye: A master archer and a former Avenger and agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Announcement and initial work
In May 2018, the Walt Disney Company CEO Bob Iger said Marvel Studios was focusing on new characters and franchises for the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) following Avengers: Endgame (2019), but another Avengers film could happen eventually given the popularity of the previous films. Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige reiterated this in January 2021, saying another Avengers film would happen "at some point". Discussing the future of the MCU for Variety in May 2022, Adam B. Vary said there was no sense yet of where the franchise was heading after Endgame but several of the MCU's Phase Four projects had featured the multiverse and some potential "Big Bads" such as Kang the Conqueror. Jonathan Majors had been cast as Kang in September 2020 for the film Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023). He was introduced as an alternate universe "variant" of Kang named He Who Remains in the first season of the Disney+ television series Loki (2021), which introduced the multiverse to the MCU. Kang was described by Michael Waldron, the creator of Loki and writer of the film Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022), as a "time-traveling, multiversal adversary" and the MCU's "next big cross-movie villain". Quantumania writer Jeff Loveness called him a "top-tier, A-list Avengers villain".

At San Diego Comic-Con in July 2022, Feige announced the films Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and Avengers: Secret Wars, to be released on May 2, 2025, and November 7, 2025, respectively. They were set to conclude Phase Six of the MCU and complete "The Multiverse Saga", which covers Phases Four, Five, and Six. The films were respectively inspired by "Kang Dynasty", a 2001 comic book storyline written by Kurt Busiek in which Kang the Conqueror travels through time to enslave humanity, and Secret Wars, the name of a 1984–85 comic written by Jim Shooter and a 2015–16 comic written by Jonathan Hickman that both follow various Marvel characters who converge on the planet Battleworld. Feige compared the films to Avengers: Infinity War (2018) and Endgame, which concluded "The Infinity Saga" that grouped the first three MCU phases. He said a lot of the Phase Four projects had been building to the larger story of The Kang Dynasty and "The Multiverse Saga", and this would continue throughout Phases Five and Six. It was later reported that Marvel Studios had not initially been planning to have the next MCU saga revolve around Kang, but they decided to do so after seeing Majors's performance in the first season of Loki and in early footage during the filming of Quantumania. Feige noted that Majors's role as multiple variants of Kang made him a different type of villain from the Infinity Saga's main antagonist, Thanos, and said there was "nobody's shoulders I'd rather be putting the Multiverse Saga on" than Majors's.

Feige said the Russo brothers would not be returning as directors from Infinity War and Endgame, despite them previously expressing interest in making a Secret Wars film. Destin Daniel Cretton was revealed to be directing The Kang Dynasty shortly after the Comic-Con announcement. He had directed Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021) for Marvel Studios, and signed an overall deal with them in December 2021 that included directing a sequel to that film and developing a Wonder Man series for Disney+. Cretton was only hired to direct The Kang Dynasty, unlike how the Russo brothers directed both Infinity War and Endgame. Loveness was hired to write the film's screenplay in September 2022, and began work two weeks later. Loveness did not expect to be considered for the film, thinking he would be "one and done" with Quantumania despite adding elements to that film which he felt would be good setup for an Avengers film. He believed he was asked to pitch for The Kang Dynasty because Marvel Studios had enjoyed those elements in Quantumania and his take on Kang. Majors confirmed the following month that he had discussed the film with Cretton, and in November, Simu Liu expressed enthusiasm for reprising his role as Shang-Chi and potentially working with Cretton again on the film. Loveness said in January 2023 that he wanted The Kang Dynasty to feel like a "generational struggle" that would take the MCU's new characters from Phase Four and "throw them into the fire".

Firing of Jonathan Majors and creative shifts
Following Majors's arrest in March 2023 and subsequent assault allegations, Marvel Studios had not yet discussed removing the actor from the MCU by the following month. He was still attached to star in The Kang Dynasty and Secret Wars, and was set to receive $20million with back-end compensation for the former. Disney was reported to be monitoring the situation. Joanna Robinson of The Ringer described the allegations against Majors as a "huge problem" for Marvel Studios that put them in an unusual position, since it was unprecedented for the studio to plan so much of the franchise on one character and actor; she argued that Majors had become a much more integral part of the Multiverse Saga than Robert Downey Jr. or Josh Brolin had been for the Infinity Saga as Tony Stark / Iron Man and Thanos, respectively. Robinson also noted that there were conflicting reports on how the studio would proceed with the matter. By then, The Kang Dynasty was scheduled to begin filming in early 2024. Jeff Sneider of Above the Line reported in May that Loveness was no longer involved in the film and had exited before the start of the 2023 Writers Guild of America strike earlier that month. In June, the film's release date was pushed back to May 1, 2026, in part due to the script not being ready before the strike.

Tatiana Siegel at Variety reported in November 2023 that Marvel Studios executives had started discussing alternative plans for the Multiverse Saga due to Majors's legal issues, including pivoting to focus on another comic book antagonist such as Doctor Doom; that character was already expected to be a major antagonist, if not the primary antagonist, in Secret Wars. The studio started considering changes to the Multiverse Saga, including minimizing the role of Kang, following the disappointing box office performance of Quantumania. Siegel felt recasting Majors was another option given Marvel Studios had previously recast major roles in the MCU due to offscreen issues, and she reported that the final episode of Loki's second season (2023) would set-up the future role for Kang and his variants in a way that would be difficult for Marvel to change. However, when the episode was released soon after, several commentators opined that it actually downplayed Kang's future role and provided several possible solutions for Marvel, including having the Kang variants be handled by Loki's Time Variance Authority (TVA) offscreen and potentially replacing them with Loki variants. In mid-November, Robinson reported that Loveness departed the film because he was closely associated with the Kang storyline and Marvel was "moving away" from that. Aaron Couch and Borys Kit, writing for The Hollywood Reporter, said Loveness completed a draft of the script before he left. They were unsure whether another writer would be hired to work on the film. At the same time, Cretton stepped down as director to focus on other MCU projects. His exit was said to be amicable as he was still working on other projects with the studio, and it was partially attributed to the film's schedule delays. Sneider reported that Marvel now wanted a writer and a director who could develop both The Kang Dynasty and Secret Wars as a two-part finale to the Multiverse Saga. He suggested that Marvel drop the Kang Dynasty title and instead call the films Secret Wars part one and two, believing this to be a convenient way to generate excitement for the films while avoiding further questions about Majors's involvement.

By mid-November 2023, the writing team of Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely—who wrote Infinity War and Endgame—had reportedly been acting as "unofficial advisors" at Marvel Studios for several months. Waldron, who was already writing Secret Wars, was hired to rewrite the screenplay for The Kang Dynasty at the end of the month. In December, Majors was fired by Disney and Marvel Studios after he was found guilty of harassment and reckless assault in the third degree. It was unknown if Marvel would recast Kang or refocus their plans on a new villain, but the studio had started referring to the film internally as Avengers 5. Sneider soon reported that, like his earlier suggestion, Marvel Studios was now developing Secret Wars as a "giant five-hour movie" split into two parts, with a year between their releases, and they were searching for a director who had not previously directed a Marvel film. Filming was expected to begin in late 2024. In February 2024, Couch and Kit said Marvel was "cleaning up the creative mess" caused by Majors's legal issues and firing, as well as Quantumania performance, with both Avengers 5 and Secret Wars being re-written to minimize the role of Kang or remove the character entirely. They confirmed that Avengers 5 was being retitled to no longer reference Kang.

New work
While completing his work as director of the film Deadpool & Wolverine (2024) for Marvel Studios, Shawn Levy was quietly asked to direct Avengers 5 in mid-March 2024. He turned down the offer due to scheduling concerns with his role as a director and executive producer on the fifth season of Stranger Things that would keep him busy until 2025. In April, filming was reported to be beginning in early 2025, after Marvel Studios delayed the film's production schedule by several months. Waldron turned in a new draft of the script by late May which was given to Levy, who was still considered to be the studio's top choice to direct the film and was in contention again following the production delay. By the start of June he was in early discussions with the studio, though other directors were still being considered and Levy had yet to commit to the film due to his work on Stranger Things and a planned Star Wars film. Deadline Hollywood described Avengers 5 as being more of an ensemble than the prior Avengers films, which mostly focused on a core group of Avengers. There was potential for more than 60 MCU actors to reprise their roles in the film, including established characters from the Infinity Saga alongside newer ones that had been introduced earlier in the Multiverse Saga. Feige explained that not all of the new characters introduced in the Multiverse Saga would be able to appear in the film and Avengers: Secret Wars given the story they were trying to tell, adding that if someone did not appear, that did not mean they would not make a future appearance elsewhere in the MCU in a later project. Later in June, Benedict Cumberbatch said he would reprise his MCU role as Dr. Stephen Strange in the next Avengers film and would begin filming in 2025. By mid-July, the Russo brothers were in early talks to direct both Avengers 5 and Secret Wars. Matthew Belloni of Puck reported that talent agency Creative Artists Agency had suggested Greg Berlanti and Noah Hawley to Marvel Studios as potential directors for both films, both of whom were turned down by Feige. Additionally, Sneider reported that Jeremy Renner would reprise his role as Clint Barton / Hawkeye in the film.

Filming
Principal photography is expected to begin in early 2025, in the United Kingdom,  under the working title Apple Pie 1. Filming was originally expected to begin in 2024, prior to various production delays and Majors's firing.

Release
Avengers 5 is scheduled to be released in the United States on May 1, 2026. It was previously scheduled for release on May 2, 2025. It will be part of Phase Six of the MCU.

Sequel
A sequel, titled Avengers: Secret Wars, is scheduled to be released on May 7, 2027. It is also being written by Waldron. The film will conclude Phase Six of the MCU.