Yesterday, The Hollywood Reporter exclusively announced that Cretton, director of Phase Four entry Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings will helm the next Avengers movie: The Kang Dynasty
While previous Phase 1 directors usually had a slate of films under their belt, like Jon Favreau with the Iron Man series, Kenneth Branaugh on Thor, or even the now toxic Joss Whedon’s helm of Avengers 1 & 2, Marvel had to lean on experienced directors as they were establishing their now record-breaking formula.
With the later phases, more and more of the Marvel slate tapped unknown directors or ones with only a few credits to their name, like the now infamous Russo brothers, who cut their teeth on shows like Community, before taking the helm of the Captain America sequels and eventually the last two Avengers films.
It’s with this group that Cretton now finds himself, having already delivered a spectacular entry with Shang Chi, and this early indication by Marvel shows they have a lot of trust in what he can deliver. That shouldn’t be taken as slights to the other fantastic directors that have worked with Marvel in this phase. At least two of them, in Chloe Zhao and Taika Waititi, stylistically may not fit well with the ambitions that an Avengers movie requires. Ryan Coogler would have been another strong choice (maybe he’s going to tackle Secret Wars which comes out later that year) but he could simply be too busy with his producing, as he’s got a full slate just like Taika.
Regardless, Cretton is an extremely strong choice by Marvel though there are a few issues I’ll keep an eye out on, which aren’t necessarily aimed at Cretton, but Marvel as a whole:
- How much creative freedom will he have on Kang Dynasty compared to Shang Chi? Who will write this film? Most of the Phase Four entries I’ve liked the most had the strongest writing teams, which includes Shang Chi’s Cretton and David Callaham. That duo could probably do a lot of justice to the entire Avengers team.
- Will he get another film before Dynasty so he can work with more of the MCU? For example, the Russo’s had Winter Soldier and Civil War, and had more heroes to utilize with each entry. Having Cretton do another film before Dynasty might be tight schedule wise, but it will give him the opportunity to work with the other Marvel stars before we tackles their largest tentpole movie.
As far as story options for Kang Dynasty go, keep an eye out on Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and Loki Season Two. Those are two stories were we know for sure Kang will show up significantly (at least one or more versions of him) and will likely set the stage for this Avengers movie, though how our heroes are going to come together this time remains to be seen.
Also given that Shang Chi just came out in 2021, and traditionally Marvel sequels have come out around the two-three year mark, like Iron Man 2 or Captain America: Winter Soldier, it’s possible Cretton could get to tackle the Shang Chi sequel in 2024 since the back half is slightly open.
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