Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars are American superhero films based on the Marvel Comics superhero team the Avengers, produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. They are respectively the fifth and sixth installments in the Avengers film series following Avengers: Endgame (2019), and the 39th and 40th films of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). Both films are directed by Anthony and Joe Russo from screenplays by Michael Waldron, Stephen McFeely, and the writing team of Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers. They feature an ensemble cast composed of many previous MCU actors, headlined by Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Pedro Pascal, Anthony Mackie, Florence Pugh, Vanessa Kirby, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Simu Liu, Joseph Quinn, and Letitia Wright. In Doomsday, the Avengers, Wakandans, Fantastic Four, New Avengers, and the X-Men team up to face Doctor Doom (Downey).
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 the villain Kang the Conqueror. Jeff Loveness was hired to write The Kang Dynasty that September and Waldron was hired to write Secret Wars a month later. In November 2023, Cretton departed, Waldron replaced Loveness as writer of The Kang Dynasty as well, and Marvel was considering moving away from the Kang storyline in part due to Majors' legal issues; Majors was fired the following month. The return of the Russo brothers as directors and McFeely as co-writer, the casting of Downey as new villain Doctor Doom, and the new subtitle Doomsday for the first film were all announced in July 2024. McKenna and Sommers eventually joined to help work on the scripts.
Both films are being produced at Pinewood Studios in England. Filming for Doomsday took place from April to September 2025, and filming for Secret Wars is scheduled to begin in mid-2026. Jeffrey Ford and Matthew Schmidt are editing the films and Alan Silvestri is composing the musical score for them, both returning from previous MCU films.
Avengers: Doomsday is scheduled for release on December 18, 2026, and Avengers: Secret Wars is scheduled for release on December 17, 2027, both part of Phase Six of the MCU.
Development Background Discussing the acquisition of 21st Century Fox by the Walt Disney Company, which saw the return of the film rights of Deadpool, the X-Men, and the Fantastic Four to Marvel Studios, Joe Russo—co-director of Avengers: Infinity War (2018) and Avengers: Endgame (2019) with his brother Anthony—said in April 2018 that it would be interesting to introduce those characters to the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) using a Secret Wars film that brings together different characters and realities. Secret Wars is the name of a 1984–85 comic book crossover event written by Jim Shooter and a 2015–16 comic book storyline written by Jonathan Hickman that both follow various Marvel characters who converge on the planet Battleworld. The next month, Disney CEO Bob Iger said Marvel Studios was focusing on new characters and franchises for the MCU following Endgame, but another Avengers film could happen eventually given the popularity of the previous films. In April 2019, Infinity War and Endgame writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely said they would return to write a Secret Wars film if the Russo brothers were directing it. Joe Russo discussed the idea again in July 2020, saying "to execute something on the scale of Infinity War was directly related to the dream of Secret Wars, which is even larger in scale".
Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige said in January 2021 that another Avengers film would happen eventually. In August 2021, Shooter said executives from Marvel had attempted to secure the rights to his Secret Wars storyline and he assumed they were planning a film adaptation, though Marvel would not confirm that. 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+ series Loki (2021), which introduced the multiverse to the MCU. Kang was described by Loki creator Michael Waldron 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". Additionally, the Phase Four film Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022), written by Waldron, introduces the idea of "incursions"—a key idea in the 2015 Secret Wars comic—where one universe destroys another within the multiverse. Waldron compared this to introducing Thanos to the MCU long before he became the main villain of "The Infinity Saga", which covers the MCU's Phases One, Two, and Three.
Announcement as The Kang Dynasty and Secret Wars
In July 2022, the Russo brothers reiterated that they were fans of the Secret Wars comic books, but said there were no plans for them to direct a film version. The pair added that they would have to consider the implications of such a project because it would be a "massive undertaking" and making Infinity War and Endgame had already been very difficult. At San Diego Comic-Con (SDCC) later that month, 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 first film was inspired by "Kang Dynasty", a 2001–02 comic book storyline written by Kurt Busiek in which Kang the Conqueror travels through time to enslave humanity. Feige compared the films to Infinity War and Endgame concluding the Infinity Saga. 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. Feige added that Majors's role as multiple variants of Kang made him a different type of villain from Thanos, and said there was "nobody's shoulders I'd rather be putting the Multiverse Saga on" than Majors's. 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 from the filming of Quantumania. Feige confirmed that the Russo brothers would not be returning as directors from Infinity War and Endgame.
Destin Daniel Cretton was revealed to be directing The Kang Dynasty shortly after the SDCC announcement. He 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 the Disney+ series Wonder Man (2025). 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 Kang Dynasty in September 2022, and began work two weeks later. He was surprised to be considered for the film, thinking he would be "one and done" with Quantumania, and believed Marvel Studios asked him to pitch for The Kang Dynasty because they enjoyed his take on Kang and elements he included in Quantumania that he felt would be good setup for an Avengers film. A scene with more details about Kang's backstory and future was cut from Quantumania and Loveness thought those details were better suited to be revealed in the next Avengers film. Also in September, Marvel Studios met with potential writers for Secret Wars. Waldron was considered the frontrunner and was hired to write the film in October, when its release date was pushed back to May 1, 2026. In November, Simu Liu expressed interest in reprising his role as Xu Shang-Chi from Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and working with Cretton again. Majors had discussed The Kang Dynasty with Cretton by then, and in January 2023 he was confirmed to be appearing in Secret Wars as well. Loveness said 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". Shang-Chi was set to be one of the lead characters at that time. In March, Loveness said the Fantastic Four and the X-Men would not appear in the film due to their MCU introductions being "pretty far away". He and Waldron pitched a scene where the Young Avengers would have defeated a variant of Kang, specifically "the lizard Kang from the end of" Quantumania, only to find a card that says "be patient with him, it [is] his first day as a Kang".
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 both films, and was set to receive $20million with back-end compensation for The Kang Dynasty. Disney was reportedly 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 said 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. Journalist Jeff Sneider 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 release dates for The Kang Dynasty and Secret Wars were pushed back to May 1, 2026, and May 7, 2027, respectively, in part due to the scripts not being ready before the strike.
Tatiana Siegel at Variety reported in November 2023 that Marvel Studios executives had discussed potentially bringing back the original Avengers cast, including Downey as Iron Man and Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanoff / Black Widow after those characters died in Endgame. Feige later denied that they had discussed this. Siegel also reported 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 reportedly started considering changes, including minimizing the role of Kang, following the disappointing box office performance of Quantumania. Siegel felt recasting Majors was an 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 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 Time Variance Authority (TVA) offscreen and potentially replacing them with Loki variants.