Marvel Studios is notoriously mum on details of new projects, and Avengers: Secret Wars is no exception, with only a release date on the official website. Considering the trajectory of the MCU based on recent film and Disney+ series in Phase 4, and theories that Phase 5 will change the franchise significantly, the culminating Avengers film coming out in 2026 is expected to be epic.

One thing we do know about the film is that Michael Waldron has been selected to write Avengers: Secret Wars’ screenplay. It’s an internal hire of sorts, as Waldron has previously worked on season 1 of Loki and, more recently, wrote Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, both of which were fundamental to exploring the MCU’s Multiverse. Since we’re in The Multiverse Saga, as outlined by Empire, it makes sense to have Waldron pen the upcoming Avengers film. Until we learn more about Secret Wars, here’s a look at Waldron’s career within (and without) the MCU.

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Early Comedy Experience

     Sony Pictures Television

Starting out in Hollywood often means being an assistant or intern while also working other part-time jobs. These seemingly menial jobs can often be the first steps to bigger and better careers in Hollywood. Amy Suto explains the differences between a production assistant (PA), show runner’s assistants, and writers’ assistants. As a PA, an individual runs errands like getting food or delivering paperwork to different offices. Ultimately, production assistants can work their way up to being a full-fledged writer or director, though each person’s career trajectory and goals vary. Either way, starting out in Hollywood as a show’s PA can lead to more responsibility on other shows and even movies.

Waldron began his career in Hollywood as a PA on two vastly different comedy shows around the same time: Community and Rick and Morty. Waldron praised the two shows’ creator, Dan Harmon and his writer’s room in an interview with NBC News: “Dan’s creative process is so democratized that even as an intern and a PA I was pitching jokes on Rick and Morty and Community, and every now and then I’d sneak one in. It was incredibly important to my confidence as a young writer.” For Harmon to have such a positive and creative workspace, interns and P.A.’s were allowed to shine. Though for Waldron, being a PA on Community threw the doors wide open for his next adventures as a writer and producer.

Exploring Alternate Realities

     Warner Bros. Discovery

Waldron held several responsibilities while working on Rick and Morty. He wrote one episode and produced ten between 2019 and 2020. His weird exploration of Rick and Morty gave him the opportunity to be approached by the one and only Kevin Fiege to pen the script for and produce the third Disney+ Marvel series, Loki. With Waldron in the creative seat and Kate Herron leading the way as director, Tom Hiddleston’s reprisal of the beloved MCU anti-hero brought the biggest success of a male-led series. The MCU brought mischief back in a way that left audiences on the edge of their seats. Waldron explained to SyFy that, as the writer, he had to do a deep dive into the Loki comics, but it was Herron, Kasra Farahani, and Christine Wada who brought his words to life through production and costume design.

Waldron’s MCU History

     Marvel Studios / Disney

Considering his experience with comedy and multiversal storylines, it’s only fitting that Waldron’s screenplay to the sequel of Doctor Strange would be even weirder than the first. Loki helped introduce how paralleling timelines worked and the consequences of the variants. Doctor Strange introduced magic into the MCU, explaining how to master it. The majority of the MCU’s superheroes may be science aficionados or science experiments gone right or wrong, but magic is quite rare in the mega-movie franchise. Furthermore, should a story center on a magic-user, weird things are bound to happen and the world around that user needs to be particularly chaotic.

With Waldron’s MCU experiences on both the big and small screen, Avengers: Secret Wars could bring back some familiar faces as well as some new ones. Notably, the Marvel Comics series of the same name is a standoff between the most powerful superheroes and villains. This could mean weirdness on par with Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness and epic storylines like Avengers: Endgame. Surely with Waldron at the writer’s desk, the fifth Avengers film will be extraordinarily weird and wild.