With the recent news of the Russo brothers, Joe and Anthony, coming back to direct the fifth and sixth Avengers movies, one question comes to mind: who's going to be the villain?
According to the The Hollywood Reporter, Avengers 5 will get a new title and a new focus. Previously, the fifth installment was going to be called Avengers: The Kang Dynasty, with the villain played by Jonathan Majors.
Kang no longer conquers as Jonathan Majors gets cut from Marvel
However, the actor was accused of assaulting and harassing his then-girlfriend Grace Jabbari. Since then, his case has gone to trial. He was found guilty of two misdemeanor counts of harassment and sexual assault. In April, Majors was sentenced to a year of domestic violence counseling. He faced no jail time since he did not have any prior criminal record.
Marvel Studios cut its ties with Majors when he was convicted. A month before that, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings director Destin Daniel Cretton, who was attached to direct the fifth Avengers installment, left. Now Avengers 5 will shift to a new title and a new focus. While it may not have a title, a focus and villain, it does have a release date: May 1, 2026.
Avengers 5 and 6
The sixth Avengers movie will take on the Secret Wars storyline. The Russos have spoken about wanting to adapt this plot. Based on a comic book series published in the 1980s, Secret Wars focused on the powerful villain Beyonder. In the series, Marvel's heroes and villains were pitted against each other on the planet Battleworld.
In 2015, a revival of the comic series continued on the multiverse saga referenced in the 2022 film Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Jonathan Hickman wrote the revival series where the Marvel 616 Universe collided with the Ultimate Marvel 1610 Universe, destroying both. Afterwards, certain pieces of the two universes were saved and ended up combining with other universes that appeared after the collision, which created Battleworld ruled by Dr. Doom.
With the sixth Avengers film's plot and villains squared away and its release date set for May 7, 2027, the Russos need to decide on who the Avengers will fight for the fifth film. But since they haven't yet, let's talk about who could replace Kang in Avengers 5.
Mephisto
You can't go wrong with going with the villain described as the Marvel Universe's devil. He's been rumored to make his Marvel Cinematic Universe debut in the upcoming Ironheart. He's meant to be the manifestation of combining science and magic.
He's also good for continuation since he once served Thanos — a callback to the first Avengers series the audience has known and loved. In the comics, he ended up betraying Thanos in order to bring Hell not just to this Earth, but to all its versions in the multiverse.
Mephisto is described as an extra-dimensional demon who rules Hell. Not in the sense of hell as recognized by the Christian religion or even Hades of the Olympians. He only calls it that so he can exploit humans' belief in an evil being.
Marvel can do a lot with Mephisto since he can be tied to different stories, including Agatha Harkness' storyline in the upcoming Disney+ series Agatha All Along. He can also be tied to Scarlet Witch if ever Marvel decides to bring her back as well.
The Grandmaster
We met him in 2017's Thor: Ragnarok when he was superbly played by Jeff Goldblum. The Grandmaster is one of the ageless Elders of the Universe. True to his name, he has mastered almost all civilizations' games of skill and chance. The Grandmaster manipulates the so-called power primordial, the radiation left over from the Big Bang.
Since he possesses a cosmic life force, he is virtually immortal. Due to this, he is immune to aging, disease, poison as well as impervious to conventional injury. He can also use his cosmic life force to transport himself and also as all kinds of weapons. The Grandmaster is also able to “will” the death of another being and can also resurrect them. He is also able to temporarily give his powers to another.
And really, Goldblum was an underutilized asset in Thor. There can never be too much Goldblum.
Namor
We were introduced to Namor in 2022's Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, played by Tenoch Huerta. In the comics, he was the mutant son of a human sea captain and a princess of the mythical kingdom of Atlantis. In the film, he was the son of Fen, a member of a Mayan tribe and an Aztec Purépecha pochtea mercenary spy. Before he was born, the pregnant Fen and her fellow tribesman became sick with smallpox that the Spanish Conquistadores brought with them.
In order to survive, the tribe consumed a blue plant found underwater in order to somehow cure their sickness. However, unbeknownst to them, the plant had traces of vibranium which ended up changing the tribe's anatomy and biology, enabling them to breathe underwater.
Ch'ah Toh Almehen or Namor was the first child to be born underwater and became the king of the underwater kingdom of Talokan. He has superstrength, flight and other superhuman powers.
Wakanda Forever director Ryan Coogler described him to Entertainment Weekly as “kind of an asshole, kind of romantic, and just incredibly powerful.” For that description alone, Namor should be considered as the next Avengers villain.
Kang the Conqueror
Kang was a good and complicated villain in Loki. I think there's no problem in keeping him the villain. The audience — especially Marvel fans — would understand recasting. After all, it's been done before.
Kang the Conqueror has been described as one of Marvel's most notable and powerful villains. That's impressive given that he doesn't have superhuman powers. He's gone by different names such as Rama-Tut, Immortus, Scarlet Centurion, Victor Timely, Iron Lad and Mister Gryphon.
He is said to be an extraordinary genius and has mastered the sciences of physics (specializing in time travel) and engineering. He is often armed with 40th-century technology. Kang also has a time-ship, which means he can access technology from any time period, and it's powerful enough to destroy the Moon.
But ultimately, it's the Russos' decision. They have a solid track record beginning with their first Marvel Cinematic Universe project, 2014's Captain America: The Winter Soldier. They directed four of the studio's biggest and critically acclaimed films continuing with 2016's Captain America: Civil War, 2018's Avengers: Infinity War and 2019's Avengers: Endgame.
In total, their Marvel films have grossed $6.681 billion. Endgame alone earned $2.79 billion worldwide, making it the second highest-grossing film of all time. It was only beaten by James Cameron's Avatar when it was re-released.
Since then, the Russos became megaproducers through their AGBO banner. They produced the Academy Award-winning film Everything Everywhere All at once. They also produced Prime Video's Citadel and Netflix's Extraction franchise. The Russos also directed the Tom Holland-starrer Cherry, released in 2021 for Apple and 2022's The Gray Man for Netflix. They have an upcoming sci-fi adventure feature for Netflix, The Electric State.
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