During last year's San Diego Comic-Con, Marvel Studios announced plans to release both Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and Avengers: Secret Wars during Phase 6.
The release dates - and creative teams - have changed since then, of course, with Jeff Loveness supposedly no longer attached to the former and Michael Waldron said to be off the latter after Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness both underwhelmed.
Recently, Loki episode 2 director Dan DeLeeuw said we haven't seen "the definitive Kang yet," prompting speculation about which Variant that might be. The returning Conqueror? A new He Who Remains? How about Immortus?
Try The Beyonder.
According to one reliable scooper, that's still the plan (you may recall this rumour first doing the rounds late last year) for the next two Avengers movies.
As you'll already know, there have been two comic book events named Secret Wars; the first saw The Beyonder abduct heroes and villains from Earth, pitting them against each other for his own amusement. In the second, an incursion ended with Doctor Doom ruling over an amalgamation of realities from across the Multiverse, all pulled together to create a twisted new world.
One popular theory online is that the Kang we met in Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania didn't actually die and has somehow been merged with the Multiverse itself to become an all-powerful being. However, if Loveness is no longer working on The Kang Dynasty, that idea may have been scrapped.
Marvel Studios is often criticised for being predictable, but ditching Kang the Conqueror to introduce a Kang with the powers of The Beyonder is an unexpected move which suggests Kevin Feige and company have some unique plans for the Multiverse Saga.
It's important to note that nothing has been confirmed at this stage so we'd recommend taking this rumour with a pinch of salt. However, we have good reason to believe this will indeed be the "definitive Kang" DeLeeuw referred to.
In the comics, The Beyonder hails from an infinite realm beyond the Marvel Multiverse, called the Beyond-realm, and is the sum of everything outside that. It became self-aware and formed a being of immeasurable power known as "The Beyonder," and is both mankind's greatest saviour and threat.
Avengers: The Kang Dynasty was recently pushed back to May 1, 2026, with Avengers: Secret Wars set to follow on May 7, 2027.