We Were Robbed! – Kang’s Return to the MCU Detailed
In April of this year, Jonathan Majors was found guilty of assault and harassment against his ex-girlfriend. Marvel promptly fired Jonathan Majors, and what would become of Kang was now a mystery. There were rumors that Marvel would simply recast Kang, which seemed the easiest route, considering who Kang is. Still, Marvel recently announced that they’re abandoning Kang as the big bad of the Multiverse Saga. Dr. Doom will now be the big bad of the 5th Avengers movie, retitled Avengers: Doomsday from The Kang Dynasty. Oh, and get this – not only is Doom the new big bad, but Robert Downy Jr. is coming back to play Doom.
Naturally, quite a few fans on Twitter are upset about it, more so because RDJ is coming back rather than having a new actor play Doom. Me? I’m fine. I don’t know what route they’re going, but Marvel has entertained me more times than not, so I’ll be optimistic about it, as it’s still a fictional movie universe at the end of the day. Regardless, this broke a lot of Kang fans’ hearts. We never got to see him be an Avengers-level threat. The closest that we can get to seeing Kang in all his majesty is in the old cartoon, Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. I highly recommend the show aside from Kang. Before they rebooted it and made it more like the MCU with Avengers Assemble, this show could give the DC shows from the early 2000s a run for their money.
So, a couple of days ago, I came across a tweet on Twitter (and I do mean Twitter; you’ll never catch me calling it X). Twitter user @Exiledscoop3r made a thread that detailed how Kang would return and be a real threat to the Avengers in The Kang Dynasty. And after reading the thread, I have to say, we were truly robbed. This would have been the ultimate payoff after seeing him be humiliated by Antman, of all heroes. In fact, I was always against that being his first MCU movie because I knew how raw and powerful Kang could be. Check out the tweet below for Kang’s next steps in his MCU arc.
Reading through this thread, it would have been phenomenal to see it play on the screen. Kang would’ve gotten the Thanos treatment—making the audience understand his motivations, with some in agreement. His backstory alone already seems much more compelling than Thanos’. I really wanted to see how his story would play out, but sadly, that doesn’t seem to be coming to fruition.
Even with another actor in the role, I would have rather this than the current route. Sure, Jonathan Majors messed up and has to “suffer the consequences,” but why abandon the villain altogether? They could’ve easily saved Doom for the next saga if they really wanted him to be the big bad. And don’t get me wrong, Dr. Doom is just as beast as Kang, but this just feels like a cop-out. The characters that they choose not to recast in the MCU will never make sense to me, and it sucks that this has happened to 2 amazing characters at this point – Black Panther and Kang.
Again, I’m not upset about Doomsday or Doom being the big bad of the Multiverse Saga now, but I doubt what will happen will get me as hyped as I felt reading this and picturing it brought to life. I’m not 100% certain that this is based on the scrapped script for The Kang Dynasty, but if it is, Marvel better make Doom’s introduction to the MCU worth it all. Kang’s story is also said to be wrapped up in Doomsday, so we’ll see how they handle that. Until then, we’ll keep coasting and seeing Marvel’s course correction in real-time. We’ll find out in a couple of years if it pays off for them.