Avengers 5 is rumored to have lost Michael Waldron, which would leave the project without a writer, director, and actor to play the villain.
Since it was first announced back in 2022, the fifth Avengers movie - then titled Avengers: The Kang Dynasty - has lost director Destin Daniel-Cretton (Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings), original writer Jeff Loveness (Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania), and star Jonathan Majors, who was set to play the main antagonist, Kang the Conqueror.
Now, Next Point News is reporting that Waldron has also parted ways with the film.
No reason was provided, but Waldron had been working on the story for a while, so it's reasonable to assume he either completed his draft or was very close to doing so. In which case, another scribe may be brought on to revise/touch-up the existing script.
Unless, of course, Marvel has decided to completely scrap the current story and start from scratch.
Shooting is said to be scheduled for March 2025, and the movie is currently set to hit theaters on May 1, 2026. This gives the studio a bit of time to get everything in order (new writers have been brought on a lot closer to production in the past) - again, depending on how significantly Waldron's departure has altered plans.
Back in May, the trades reported that Deadpool and Wolverine director Shawn Levy was in talks to helm the movie. The studio reportedly offered him the gig in mid-March, but he turned it down at the time as he was still putting the finishing touches on D&W and was also working on the final season of Stranger Things.
Though negotiations were said to be underway, it never sounded like a done deal, and other filmmakers were reportedly in contention.
Despite Majors' firing, Kang is still expected to appear, although we can't see the character playing nearly as big a role in the story. We got word that Marvel/Disney had severed ties with Majors almost immediately after the news that he'd been found guilty broke, which would obviously seem to suggest that they were waiting for the verdict before making their decision. However, some insiders believe that the studio was never going to move forward with Majors as Kang, regardless of the outcome of the trial.
The trades don't mention anything about a new actor taking over as Kang, but do note that the movie "could potentially include multiple antagonists."
Deadline did recently mention some intriguing plot details.
"Sources close to the project say more than 60 MCU characters could reprise their roles, including everyone from Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth and Benedict Cumberbatch to Tom Hiddleston, Simu Liu and Karen Gillan. Unlike the first four films in which there was a core group that consisted of Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Hemsworth and Ruffalo, many of the characters in this film would have equal footing, making it more of an ensemble feature instead of a handful of characters leading the team."