Following Jonathan Majors' legal issues and his subsequent departure from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Marvel has decided to remove his character, Kang, from the title of the fifth Avengers installment, signaling a significant shift in narrative direction.
Originally titled Avengers: The Kang Dynasty, the film is undergoing rewrites to either minimize or completely remove Kang's presence from the storyline.
Kang the Conqueror, a formidable time-traveling adversary, was first introduced as the MCU's most imminent threat in the Loki Season 1 finale and played a pivotal role in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. These appearances were building up to what many assumed would be a showdown of epic proportions in Avengers: The Kang Dynasty. However, the underperformance of Quantumania at the box office, coupled with Majors' conviction, has prompted Marvel to rethink its strategy.
A report from The Hollywood Reporter suggests that Marvel Studios is pivoting to a new but similarly iconic villain, Doctor Doom, the sovereign monarch of Latveria. The mask-wearing evil genius has been a cornerstone of Marvel's villain roster since debuting in 1962. He could potentially offer a fresh antagonist for the Avengers to face and be a large enough of a threat to warrant a multiversal team-up.