Marvel really wants people who have complained about the seeming lack of direction or focus in Phase 4 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe to know that there is, in fact, a plan, and yes, the Avengers will return ride
As part of Saturday’s news blitzkrieg during Marvel Studio’s Hall H panel at San Diego Comic-Con 2022, and after announcing his entire Phase 5 roster, Kevin Feige kicked off Phase 6 and announced the titles of “Avengers 4” and “Avengers 5”: “Avengers: The Kang Dynasty” followed by “Avengers: Secret Wars”.
“The Kang Dynasty” will hit theaters on May 2, 2025. “Secret Wars” will follow on November 7, 2025, marking a shorter wait than the year between “Infinity War” and “Endgame.”
These two films conclude what Marvel says are Phases 4, 5, and 6: The Multiverse Saga. This is the new Infinity Saga, and it started retroactively with “Loki,” “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” and “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.”
For those of you who don’t know, “Secret Wars” gets its name from Marvel’s groundbreaking miniseries “Marvel Super Heroes: Secret Wars.” It ran from May 1984 to April 1985 and happens to be the first company-wide crossover event in comic book history.
The series was born when Marvel reached an agreement with Mattel for a line of action figures. Mattel wanted a big crossover event to promote the release of the toys, so current Marvel editor-in-chief Jim Shooter came up with the idea, based on frequent reader requests for an event that included all the Marvel characters.
The story is simple: a cosmic entity of unfathomable power is curious about Earth’s super heroes and super villains, so it teleports Marvel’s A-list heroes to an artificially constructed planet called “Battle World” and he orders them to fight to the death. “I am from beyond! Kill your enemies and everything you desire will be yours! Nothing you dream of is impossible for me to achieve”, he tells them.
The simple premise heralded big changes for Marvel’s status quo. Most famously, Battleworld is where Spider-Man got his black suit, which of course turned out to be the Venom symbiote. But the series also resulted in She-Hulk replacing The Thing as a member of the Fantastic Four, some interpersonal drama between the X-Men, and Hulk suffering injuries that restored his version of uncontrollable rage.
Of course, the X-Men don’t exist within the Marvel Cinematic Universe yet, so if we had to guess, “Secret Wars” is how we’ll first meet them. Easy enough to kidnap them alongside everyone else to echo when Tony, Doctor Strange and Peter Parker encountered the Guardians of the Galaxy in “Avengers: Infinity War.”
One thing though: the fact that Kang is the main villain of any Phases 4 and 5 suggests that it will be him, or rather, one of Kang’s seemingly infinite time-traveling variants, setting up the new version of The Avengers , instead of the Beyonder.
Speaking of Kang, “The Kang Dynasty” takes its name from the 16-part “Avengers” story written by the great Kurt Busiek that ran from 2001 to 2002. In it, Kang, in a nutshell, returns from the 30th century and , in fact, manages to take over the entire planet earth, destroying the United Nations headquarters in the process. Of course, The Avengers eventually stop him, but at great cost.
“Avengers: The Kang Dynasty” (Marvel) Marvel Studios Marvel Studios