When Marvel Studios introduced Kang (a.k.a. He Who Remains) in Loki's Season 1 finale, the stage was set for the MCU to get a big bad who was even more formidable than Thanos.
However, the studio made a major misstep by throwing his most well-known Variant, Kang the Conqueror, into Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania. In the movie, the Kang we expected to be the Multiverse Saga's endgame was soundly defeated by the title heroes.
To make matters worse, rising star Jonathan Majors was dropped from the role after a well-publicised domestic abuse trial. While Loki Season 2 deepened the Kang mystery with Victor Timely and He Who Remains' return, his story arc looks set to remain unfinished.
Marvel Studios has decided to move on from Kang and will instead focus on Doctor Doom in the next Avengers movies. Since The Kang Dynasty (now titled Doomsday) was first announced, for a May 1, 2026, release, only a few details have been revealed about what might have been.
We know Destin Daniel Cretton was set to direct, of course, with Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania's Jeff Loveness penning the screenplay (Michael Waldron had been tasked with Secret Wars).
Thanks to @MyTimeToShineH, some additional details have been revealed today. This makes for fascinating reading, promising a Spider-Man-centric story that would have been heavy on Multiversal cameos.
"In this film, the TVA began gathering Anchor Beings from across the Multiverse, believing they are the only ones powerful enough to defeat the Council of Kangs. Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield were the Anchors for their respective realities, while Tom Holland’s Spider-Man served as the Anchor for Earth-616."
"The movie was intended to be smaller in scope compared to SECRET WARS, focusing more on Holland's Peter Parker, Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield, Hugh Jackman's Wolverine, and other Anchors like Nic Cage's Ghost Rider."
"The plan was for all of them to ultimately fail, leading to the collapse of the Multiverse and Kang’s creation of Battleworld. This would then set the stage for SECRET WARS, where other MCU characters and additional Multiverse figures would converge on Battleworld."
Reading this—and comparing it with what we know about Avengers: Doomsday—it's apparent that Marvel Studios hasn't simply swapped out Kang for Doom. The final destination to set up Secret Wars (the creation of Battleworld) is likely the same, but the focus will now be on the Avengers, X-Men, and Fantastic Four trying to stop Doom as the Multiverse begins collapsing.
The concept of Anchor Beings has seemingly been scrapped, and the Spider-Men reunion is seemingly being saved for 2027's Avengers movie. That's the movie we anticipate being heavy on Variants, and with Waldron still hard at work on that and Doomsday, chances are some of his ideas will survive the move away from Kang.
Avengers: Doomsday is set to be released on December 18, 2026, with Avengers: Secret Wars scheduled to arrive on December 17, 2027.