It's been no easy feat getting the next Avengers movies into theaters. They were originally set to be released in the same year, with Jeff Loveness (Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania) writing The Kang Dynasty and Michael Waldron (Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness) tasked with Secret Wars.
Since then, it's become clear to fans and Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige that entrusting the relatively inexperienced Rick & Morty scribes with the Multiverse Saga's final chapters perhaps wasn't the wisest move.
Jonathan Majors' personal and legal issues combined with the largely negative response to the Ant-Man threequel saw plans to make Kang the Conqueror the MCU's next big bad essentially scrapped. Both Loveness and Waldron were removed from their respective movies, but only after Waldron was tasked with rewriting what then became "Avengers 5."
With the return of directors Joe and Anthony Russo and writer Stephen McFeely transforming that into Avengers: Doomsday - where Robert Downey Jr. will instead be the lead villain as Doctor Doom - much has been said about how many of Waldron's - and to a lesser extent, Loveness' - ideas will make it into the two-parter.
Well, according to scooper Daniel Richtman, the Russos completely scrapped Waldron's script and story for Avengers: Doomsday. Everything is being rewritten from scratch and that explains recent chatter about a small delay in getting the screenplay finished in time for when shooting starts this Spring.
Not only does this dismiss the notion that Doom has simply replaced Kang in the story but it should please those who have been unhappy with Waldron's previous MCU work; there's an entire section of the fanbase unhappy with him vilifying the Scarlet Witch, for example.
In related news, hot on the heels of yesterday's Daredevil: Born Again trailer, Richtman says that Charlie Cox will have a minor role as Daredevil in Avengers: Doomsday. The Man Without Fear has never been one for team-ups so this isn't overly surprising.
In a recent interview, Joe Russo explained, "There were ideas that we were trying to wrap our heads around that preceded this one, and we just never found the story. I remember calling Steve and said, 'Hey, crazy idea. What do you think if we all go back and do Secret Wars?' You were like, 'F*** no. Absolutely not."
"And then you hung up. And the next morning at 7.30 you called and were like, 'Alright, I have an idea,'" he added, revealing how he and Anthony ended up agreeing to an MCU return.
Avengers: Doomsday is set to be released in May 2026, with Avengers: Secret Wars scheduled to arrive in May 2027.