There has been a massive shuffling around over at Disney lately, with films being delayed, brought forward, and even added to the giant media corporation’s roster. The announcements came on Sunday with these changes affecting Disney, Star Wars, and of course, Marvel too. One such change is that the next Avengers film, Avengers: The Kang Dynasty, has been delayed by a year, and this could be a chance for one supervillain to really shine.
The Kang Dynasty, and the follow-up Avengers film, Secret Wars, have both been pushed back by a whole year thanks to the reorganization at Disney. Now, just as with all the other non-Marvel films that have also been moved around, such as the third Avatar film whose release slot went from December 2024 to December 2025, this move likely has nothing to do with the events surrounding Kang actor Jonathan Majors’, but it does give the studio more time to discuss options.
Marvel has been very tight-lipped on the actor’s future in the franchise, given it had taken a massive risk in hanging much of its current Multiverse Saga on his portrayal of Kang. Majors is set to make a return as another (or multiple) Kang variants in season two of Loki, but beyond that, we don’t know how he will continue in the MCU, especially if he is found guilty of domestic violence. By pushing back The Kang Dynasty, Marvel may have earned itself some time to see what happens with the current court case.
There are multiple options for Marvel; they could simply recast Kang and pretend the new actor is merely another variant, they could change him and not have any excuse, using the new actor for all variants as they have done with Kang so far, they could simply keep Majors in the role and face the backlash, or they could shake things up a bit and bring in a new big bad. The latter gives one Marvel supervillain the potential to stretch his demonic wings a little.
Mephisto is a villain that many have wanted to see in the MCU for a long time. He has been teased repeatedly, going all the way back to the first Avengers film, where extremely eagle-eyed fans may have spotted his name under an image of the tesseract in a S.H.I.E.L.D. file. He was more prominently teased recently in WandaVision and the first season of Loki, with many getting super excited before realizing this was just a sleight of hand on Marvel’s part and, while hints were placed everywhere, the villain would not make an in-person (or in-demon) appearance. Some like to believe that Madisynn from She-Hulk could have had contact with the demon after she was sent stumbling through dimensions.
There are solid indications, though, that we will be introduced to the character in the upcoming Ironheart series, with many firmly believing Sacha Baron Cohen will take on the role. If you check out the show’s IMDb page, it lists the actor as Mephisto, but there has been no confirmation of this by Marvel, so IMDb may have jumped the gun here.
Fans are also keen to see the character in Agatha: Coven of Chaos; given the witchy/sorcery element of the show, it would make it the perfect match for the mystical multi-dimension dweller. Again, Marvel has not said a word about whether this will be the case.
The devilish character is beloved by comics fans, many of whom have been begging to see him get adapted for the screen and brought into the grand scheme of the MCU. Given the amount of love the character already has, plus the hype already built up, he would make the ideal replacement as the big bad of the Multiverse Saga if the studio does decide to drop Majors and move away from Kang altogether.
However, this would be a massive headache for the studio that has been planning the next three years around the fact that Majors will play Kang. Who knows how many scripts would need to be rewritten and scenes reshot — heck, even the title, The Kang Dynasty, would need to be changed. This is probably unlikely to happen, though if they decide to scale back on Kang’s involvement with the following two phases, then it does leave a little more room to flesh out the character of Mephisto, something fans would undoubtedly be happy about.