Directly on the heels of his guilty verdict for assault and harassment, Marvel fired Jonathan Majors putting to rest months of speculation of how the studio would handle the actor who was arrested on domestic violence charges shortly after his big-screen debut as Kang the Conqueror in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.
Despite the arrest, Majors still appeared in Loki Season 2, but signs began showing that Marvel was moving away from making Kang the next Thanos-level threat to the MCU. The upcoming film, Avengers: The Kang Dynasty would’ve made good on that threat, but in mid-November, director Destin Daniel Cretton exited the project amid reports that Jeff Loveness was no longer writing the picture. Now comes word that the film’s title and focus may have already changed.
In November, Marvel hired Loki creator Michael Waldron to work on a new draft of what was once called Kang Dynasty, but is now being referred to as Avengers 5, according to sources. The studio has had months to plan for such an eventuality, and it’s possible that Waldon was part of that course correction.
As THR notes, Marvel has two moves at this point as it retools what’s now being called Avengers 5: “It could recast the part, although it is not clear how many actors would be attracted to a role from which one actor was so publicly fired. The other course is to redevelop its plans and refocus on a brand new villain.”
There may already be indications of which direction Marvel is heading. The recent behind-the-scenes exposé from Variety reported that studio executives have already discussed pivoting to a new villain: Doctor Doom. On top of that, Jon Hamm has already thrown his hat in the ring for the role. The actor publicly expressed his interest while promoting Fargo Season 5.
There also been uncorroborated online rumors that Marvel has approached Oppenheimer star Cillian Murphy for the part of Doom.
(Via The Hollywood Reporter)
