The Kang Dynasty is no more! In a move made to distance the next Avengers film from some significant bad juju related to the character played by Jonathan Majors before his dismissal from his Marvel contract, Marvel Studios is reportedly in theaeket for a new title for what was originally Avengers: The Kang Dynasty. Currently being written by Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and Avengers: Secret Wars scribe Michael Waldron, the film is currently slated for a May 1, 2026 (and could easily move off that date) release which means there’s no rush to retitle it; however, since they’re in the market for a new subtitle, we thought we’d toss out a few ideas.
Avengers: Secret Wars
But that’s the title of the sixth Avengers film!
As it stands Avengers 6, aka Avengers: Secret Wars is due out May 7, 2027 but there are a couple of scenarios in which Marvel could consider renaming Avengers 5 as Avengers: Secret Wars and then finding a new title for Avengers 6.
The most obvious–and honestly lest desirable–scenario would be to make the two-part finale to the Multiverse Saga a true Part 1 and Part 2. In that case, the 2026 film could titled Avengers: Secret Wars, Avengers: Secret Wars-Part 1 or Avengers: Secret Wars I. That would pave the way for the 2027 film to be retitled as Avengers: Secret Wars-Part 2 or, if they wanted to snag a title from a Marvel Comics event, Avengers: Secret Wars II, a 1985 follow-up to the original 1984 Secret Wars. Both of those events features the Beyonder, who could easily be worked into the Multiverse Saga as the true big bad rather than Kang.
Another option that could be paired with retitling Avengers 5 as Avengers: Secret Wars is to retitle Avengers 6 as Avengers: Heroes Reborn. The title will be familiar to comic readers as it was used first in 1996 and again in 2021. Depending on what’s in store for the heroes of the MCU’s 616 universe in Avengers 5, the idea of the heroes finding themselves in another universe unaware of their past deeds is fairly fertile ground for storytelling. It’s also the kind of thing The Beyonder might do should he become the main threat of the Multiverse Saga.
Avengers: Time Runs Out
Jonathan Hickman‘s 2015 Secret Wars seems to be providing at least some inspiration for Marvel Studios as they plot their course to Avengers: Secret Wars. While it’s still unclear just how much inspiration the film will take from Hickman’s sci-fi heavy event, the idea of incursions –which first appeared in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness–was lifted directly from the author’s Avengers/New Avengers run that led to Secret Wars. Told over 20 issues of Avengers and New Avengers, Time Runs Out was the prelude to Secret Wars. Depending on how the studio wants to play it, Avengers 5 could, at the very least, borrow the title and start the countdown to Avengers: Secret Wars.
Avengers Assemble
Marvel Studios could cash in a lot of chips should they choose to go with Avengers Assemble. The title of an animated series that ran for 5 seasons, a recent Jason Aaron limited comic book series and THE catch phrase of the team, Avengers Assemble would draw a lot of eyes and make a whole bunch of sense because right now, the Avengers aren’t really a thing in the MCU. A new team will have to come together to take on whatever threat the studio goes with and calling a film in which Avengers assemble Avengers Assemble is hardly the worst option.
Avengers: Battleworld
For fans of Marvel Comics, there’s really nothing more associated with the premise of Secret Wars than Battleworld. Whether created by The Beyonder in 1984’s Secret Wars or by Doctor Doom in 2015’s Secret Wars, the patchwork planet is the central setting where heroes fend for themselves against themselves as they figure out exactly what’s going down. Given the current trajectory, it would seem the MCU’s version of Battleworld might more closely resemble the 2015 version where universes that survived incursions merged into a planet full of weird, wild domains. No, this does not require the presence of Doctor Doom. This option best fits with the idea of the Multiversal War that fans have been expecting since Season 1 of Loki first teased it.
Avengers Forever
If the studio is looking to recast Kang the Conqueror and take him off the board ahead of Avengers: Secret Wars, they need look no further than Kurt Busiek and Carlos Pancheo’s 1998 Marvel masterwork, Avengers Forever. While a direct adaptation of the 12-issue limited series would be far too convoluted for a film, there’s a simpler version that can be pulled from the bones of Busiek and Pancheo’s book. The book pitted two Kang variants–The Conqueror and Immortus–against one another, pulled Avengers from different points in their timelines to create a new team and temporarily resulted in the Immortus variant being killed off. An adaptation of this would easily allow Marvel Studios to bring back Robert Downey Jr, Chris Evans and even Scarlett Johansson which would certainly result in a massive box office take. The studio could also opt to include Hugh Jackman‘s Wolverine on the squad along with one or more Spider-Man(s) and honestly damn near any other hero they want given the nature of alternate timelines.
