Jonathan Majors, who was on track to take over as the next villain in the MCU, has been fired by Marvel, according to Variety. The actor was found guilty of assault and harassment this week and could face up to a year in prison. His sentencing date is set for February 6, 2024.
Majors was arrested in March after attacking his then-girlfriend Grace Jabbari whom he met after starring in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania as Kang. A fight began in the back of a car when Majors had reportedly “grabbed and threw” his girlfriend while in the moving car, causing injury.
Majors previously appeared in Loki and was set to lead his own MCU film, but those plans have seemingly been axed. Similarly, Majors’ film Magazine Dreams was slated to premiere on Hulu this month but was subsequently pulled from the schedule in October, with no plans for release. Variety explained that the decision was a long time coming,
Variety reported that in September, Marvel executives, led by studio chief Kevin Feige, discussed the possibility of having to pivot away from Kang and focus on another major villain. Now, with Majors’ departure official, Feige and his team have some formidable creative decisions ahead, including whether to recast a new actor as Kang or cancel “The Kang Dynasty” outright and reconfigure the remainder of the Multiverse Saga. The interconnected nature of the Marvel Cinematic Universe means that whatever Marvel decides to do could have some pricey repercussions, at a time when its parent company, Disney, has entered a far more cost-conscious era.
The situation has been simmering and ugly for a while. We’ll have more as it develops.
