After years of waiting, fans finally have not one, but two Avengers films to look forward to on the MCU slate. The first of which, Avengers: The Kang Dynasty, will hit theaters in May 2025 with Avengers: Secret Wars following it up in the Fall of the same year. While not much is currently known about Secret Wars, The Kang Dynasty has made headlines with a writer and even a director in Shang-Chi's Destin Daniel Cretton.
Cretton has said in the past that making the jump from Marvel solo film to super-powered ensemble epic was "not a hope of his," but his career seems to be going that way as the director sets off to take the helm on the upcoming Avengers 5.
And it seems that reality is finally setting in for Cretton, as he makes his excitement known to anyone that will ask.
Destin Daniel Cretton on Avengers 5
Speaking with ComicBook.com at New York Comic Con, Avengers: The Kang Dynasty director Destin Daniel Cretton spoke on his newly announced directing role, as he gets set to take on Marvel Studio's latest team-up.
After being asked by ComicBook.com's Brandon Davis if “[he was] the man for Avengers: Kang Dynasty," Cretton jokingly responded with a laugh and said "I think so:”
Brandon Davis: “Is it true?”
Destin Daniel Cretton: “Is what true?”
Davis: “Are you the man for Avengers: Kang Dynasty?”
Cretton: “Is that true? I think so (laughs).”
This comes after many quotes from the Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings director regarding a potential change to take on an Avengers film.
The filmmaker previously lamented to IGN that he is more interested in "exploring...characters" than anything else, and had no desire to follow the Russo Brothers model seen within Marvel Studios:
“That’s definitely not a hope of mine. I don’t really aspire for one or the other. Once we land on the story that we want to tell, it’ll define how many characters will enter that story. But I’m mainly excited to explore the characters more and their emotional journeys, and watch them grow and try to achieve things and fail, and see how they get themselves up out of the mud. So that’s what I’m most excited. And I’m not sure how many characters we’ll be introducing in the next one.”
It's funny to note that Cretton isn't just taking on another Marvel film, but one of the biggest in the franchise's history. The director has said that before Shang-Chi he had told his agent, "Don’t ever let me do a Marvel movie,” but realized since then that he was "an idiot for [ever] saying that:"
“... And I said this to Kevin [Feige], and Louis [D'Esposito], and Victoria [Alonso], and Jonathan [Schwartz] in the pitch, and then explained to them when they made the announcement for Shang-Chi, something sparked in me that made me have to go in and just take a meeting, and that turned into… this. When I was in the elevator going down, I was leaving that meeting, I thought, ’you’re an idiot for saying that…’”
Set to join Cretton on the Kang Dynasty creative team is Jeff Loveness who will pen the script. Loveness seems just as playful in his quotes as Destin Daniel Cretton, hilariously saying things like the Avengers film was "shooting... this weekend" after he was announced as a writer on the project:
“Shooting it this weekend at my place. Kyle forgot to charge the camera battery. Can you bring one?”
Bringing the Fun to Kang Dynasty
So far, everyone involved in Avengers: The Kang Dynasty seems to be having a lot of fun when talking about the project, whether it is Jeff Loveness joking that the film is ready to shoot or Cretton acting like there may be some uncertainty to him directing the film.
The entire creative team seems to have their funny bone on full display right now, but that is sure to change very soon. Once work on Avengers 5 starts in earnest, that is when the fun and games will be put to the side and rubber will (hopefully) hit the road.
But that is not to say no fun will be had in working on The Kang Dynasty. While it is looking to be an intense film centered on one of Marvel's most devious villains in Jonathan Majors' Kang the Conqueror, the people involved are too funny for it to be serious and serious only. Just look at the project Cretton was promoting while he gave these quotes: action-comedy American Born Chinese.
Surely these will not be the last quotes Destin Daniel Cretton gives on Avengers: The Kang Dynasty as the project marches toward its May 2, 2025 release.
