Destin Daniel Cretton No Longer Directing The Kang Dynasty

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The Marvel shakeups continue. Deadline exclusively reports that Destin Daniel Cretton has “stepped away” from directing Avengers: The Kang Dynasty to “focus on his other Marvel projects,” which are the Disney+ series Wonder Man and a sequel to Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. Deadline says that Cretton is also talking to Marvel about directing more movies down the line. This change comes on the heels of reports that Kang Dynasty screenwriter Jeff Loveness has left as well and that Marvel will be moving away from Kang the Conqueror as the central villain of the current and upcoming phases of the MCU.

Removing Cretton from The Kang Dynasty lends credence to the notion that Marvel is ready to scrap Kang as the big bad. Piece by piece, the movie that has his name in the title is falling apart, probably because the entire film is going to be retooled as something completely different. Marvel offering Cretton more movies makes me think that he may get a shot at whatever replaces The Kang Dynasty; Marvel certainly seems to like him, giving him movies and TV shows after Shang-Chi… performed. I didn’t like Shang-Chi, so I’m not thrilled that they’re giving him so many projects, but they love to keep it in the family nowadays. What’s interesting is that Joanna Robinson, the author of MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios who revealed that Kang was on the way out, also said that Wonder Man is being thrown out, so Cretton may not have that to fall back on either. Despite my dislike for his previous film, it’s hard not to feel bad for him; he was promised all this primo Marvel content, and now it’s all going away. On the other hand, Deadline says Wonder Man will begin filming again after Thanksgiving, so maybe it’s still alive.