Possible hot take – Kang was replaced (not recast) because of the complications of time-travel
Jonathan Majors’ trial was a factor too, but I feel that the MCU guys looked at the setup involving timelines and decided it had already gotten complicated enough without bringing in a time-traveller as an enemy.
In Endgame itself the Avengers were discussing how Back to the Future is rubbish, and decided to just move to alternate timelines and get the Infinity Stones to fix their own timeline (the intent was to return the Stones but they may not have succeeded).
Then there’s the Time Variance Agency, which monitors all of reality and decided to let the Avengers travel and take the Stones to stop Thanos because that was supposed to happen, and its own history is based on a variant that wants to stop an evil version of himself... and see how unwieldy this stuff is becoming?
[Kang the Conqueror and his variants](https://preview.redd.it/3ktfmt7ak5xf1.jpg?width=1920&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9838e1cf2bf48019f6d00d8222a8c2789b9925ff)
Kang himself is a time-traveller villain with five unique versions at least (He Who Remains, Victor Timely, Immortus, Scarlet Centurion, Rama-Tut) to say nothing of the Council of Kangs that was teased in Ant-Man 3. He’s like a Dr Who Time Lord, but evil (so he’s the Master I guess?), and that characters’s had 9 canon variants as far as I know. So yeah, time-travel means you complicate history so you can be unbeatable and can come from any era and get defeated and still come back.
It's hard for me to imagine how the planned Kang Dynasty film would have gone - maybe it would have involved Avengers from different timelines to fight Kang and his alternate Kangs or something. It may have been glorious, but also complicated.
All of that has been shelved by Loki, literally – a saving throw by the writers at least to just tie stuff up neatly and keep Kang contained. So now they’re brining in Dr Doom from another timeline, who may be a decent enough replacement and who should keep his conquering simple enough, we'll see what Doomsday brings in. But I wouldn't blame the MCU if they just scrapped the multiverse with a reboot/reset and kept things to one single timeline from then onwards.
In Endgame itself the Avengers were discussing how Back to the Future is rubbish, and decided to just move to alternate timelines and get the Infinity Stones to fix their own timeline (the intent was to return the Stones but they may not have succeeded).
Then there’s the Time Variance Agency, which monitors all of reality and decided to let the Avengers travel and take the Stones to stop Thanos because that was supposed to happen, and its own history is based on a variant that wants to stop an evil version of himself... and see how unwieldy this stuff is becoming?
[Kang the Conqueror and his variants](https://preview.redd.it/3ktfmt7ak5xf1.jpg?width=1920&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9838e1cf2bf48019f6d00d8222a8c2789b9925ff)
Kang himself is a time-traveller villain with five unique versions at least (He Who Remains, Victor Timely, Immortus, Scarlet Centurion, Rama-Tut) to say nothing of the Council of Kangs that was teased in Ant-Man 3. He’s like a Dr Who Time Lord, but evil (so he’s the Master I guess?), and that characters’s had 9 canon variants as far as I know. So yeah, time-travel means you complicate history so you can be unbeatable and can come from any era and get defeated and still come back.
It's hard for me to imagine how the planned Kang Dynasty film would have gone - maybe it would have involved Avengers from different timelines to fight Kang and his alternate Kangs or something. It may have been glorious, but also complicated.
All of that has been shelved by Loki, literally – a saving throw by the writers at least to just tie stuff up neatly and keep Kang contained. So now they’re brining in Dr Doom from another timeline, who may be a decent enough replacement and who should keep his conquering simple enough, we'll see what Doomsday brings in. But I wouldn't blame the MCU if they just scrapped the multiverse with a reboot/reset and kept things to one single timeline from then onwards.
Commentaires
But maybe the complications of time-travel also played a part in the pivot, who knows?
Disney dropped the ball, their culture was a major problem during that time period. Almost everything they produced failed in 2022 and 2023 in theaters and streaming, that points to a widespread problem, and that points to corporate policies and culture as the root cause.
That said, I think Feige made a lot of mistakes. Echo gets greenlit, while Agents of Shield revival, Peggy Carter revival, or even a Warriors Three show or a Howling Commandos isn't even a thought.
>Peggy Carter revival, or even a Warriors Three show or a Howling Commandos isn't even a thought.
Peggy Carter flopped, which is why it got cancelled, and since then with projects like DSMOM and What if, her stock is not the same. They basically just turned her into female Steve. Which is boring.
the warrior three were utterly forgettable. Most general audience of the MCU, couldn't named them if they tried. Yes I think a Asgard show with some Asgardian other than Thor could work, but this will be dead in the water.
I can kind of see an interest in howling commandos and agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. But the MCU writing of today will just bury shows like this, just like it did FATWS, BNW, DDBA, Secret Invasion, etc.
The wide spread problem is the writing got stagnant. And they lost all goodwill from the general audience.
You won't get disagreement from me there. I'm just saying that was a problem with all of Disney.
How is that possible if Victor Timely is a Kang variant in the 1800's? Doom is with the Fanastic 4 in the 1960's, so at least 100 years after Timely.
I bet that Earth-828 as we know it only exists because the pruning stopped and Doom’s existence is possible throughout all time once again because Loki’s TVA wasn’t aware of him specifically when selectively pruning for Kang variants but letting most branches grow w/ free will, etc.
Time travel isn't hard "We go from now to then!", Parallel Universes isn't hard "It's like home but everything's different!".
Time travel + parallel universes is going to bake most brains "It's now "then" but not here, "there" where everything is different, so how do they know what to do or where to go since nothing is the same and what do you mean doing anything will cause a problem now and here since it's happening there and then??".