Marvel Studios is looking for a new big bad as it begins erasing Kang from its MCU plans (and movie titles)

Following the firing of Jonathan Majors yesterday from all future Marvel Cinematic Universe projects, Marvel Studios appears to be heavily reworking the fifth Avengers movie.

Monday's biggest pop culture news was Kang the Conqueror actor Jonathan Majors being convicted of assault and facing up to a year in jail. Marvel was quick to drop the once-rising actor following the two-week trial, and The Hollywood Reporter's coverage yesterday briefly explored the creative routes that Marvel Studios could take to save several projects (chief among them is Avengers: The Kang Dynasty) and the larger Multiverse Saga.

On top of all the recent problems the company's movie and TV business has had to face, they unfortunately cast Majors in the most important role of their next three-phase arc. Kang (and all his variants) was going to be big menace connecting all storylines in the long run, and the two Loki seasons, as well as Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, extensively teased and started building up towards that.

Now, at least the fifth Avengers movie is facing a serious rework at the hands of Loki creator Michael Waldron (who was already working on the script for Avengers: Secret Wars). He's reportedly working on a new draft for the anticipated event movie, but it might not be called 'The Kang Dynasty' anymore. For now, according to THR's own sources, it's just 'Avengers 5' until a new direction is fully figured out. This suggests Marvel is looking to drop (or at the very least minimize) the entire Kang plot altogether instead of moving forward with the same plans by recasting the role. Such a development is entirely believable, especially after the sudden departure of director Destin Daniel Cretton (Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings) last month. Variety's extensive piece on Marvel Studios' internal struggles also claimed executives had been discussing for a while plans such as pivoting to an entirely different villain like Doctor Doom.

A silver lining amidst all the chaos is that the Loki season 2 finale, which wrapped up the series, ended in a way that allows Marvel Studios to easily pivot to another villain or multiversal storyline should they wish to do so. While everyone was expecting them to double down on the larger Kang menace, the show, the company's first-ever movie/TV project not to undergo additional photography, instead focused on the its central characters and shrugged off the connections to the larger movie plans even though it reshaped the multiversal foundations of the entire MCU.

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