‘Shang-Chi’s Destin Cretton to Direct ‘Avengers 5’

In less than three years, Marvel will attempt one of its most ridiculous feats yet: Releasing two massive Avengers sequels in the span of six months.

When they announced this plan last weekend at Comic-Con, neither of the films — Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and Avengers: Secret Wars — had directors. But now, per The Hollywood Reporter, at least one of these filmmakers has been revealed. Destin Daniel Cretton, who previously made Marvel’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, will helm The Kang Dynasty.

THR says that it is still “unclear who is writing the Kang Dynasty Avengers movie or what heroes would even make up the team’s roster for a story that helps close out Phase 6.”

The first two Avengers movies were directed by Josh Whedon. Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame were directed by Joe and Anthony Russo — who Kevin Feige already ruled out as directors of either project. But we probably shouldn’t expect Cretton to also direct Secret Wars. 

Whedon had three years between The Avengers and Age of Ultron; the Russos shot some of Infinity War and Endgame simultaneously, but they also had a full year after Infinity War’s release to complete Endgame. To pull off that absurdly tight turnaround between the two upcoming Avengers films, Marvel will almost certainly need a separate director working simultaneously on Secret Wars while Cretton works on The Kang Dynasty.

Avengers: The Kang Dynasty opens in theaters on May 5, 2025. Avengers: Secret Wars opens in theaters on November 7, 2025.