Disney and Marvel Studios have parted ways with Jonathan Majors, who was set up to portray the Phase Six Big Bad, Kang the Conqueror, following his guilty verdicts in his domestic assault case. Majors was found guilty of reckless assault and harassment against his former girlfriend Grace Jabbari.
Sentencing will take place on February 6 and Majors could face jail time.
Majors was introduced as the Kang variant He Who Remains in Loki Season One in 2021, then returned in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania earlier this year, and finally turned in one last appearance as Victor Timely in Loki Season Two. He was set up to be the “next Thanos” in Avengers: The Kang Dynasty. But that movie has been pulled and is being overhauled. Director Destin Daniel Cretton departed and reportedly, new writers have been brought in to redo the script. It’s entirely possible that Marvel will ditch its plans for the character Kang, or they could recast.
If they go with the latter, it wouldn’t be the first time a major MCU character has been recast. Terrance Howard played James “Rhodey” Rhodes in Ironman but was replaced by Don Cheadle starting with Ironman 2. Edward Norton starred in The Incredible Hulk, but Mark Ruffalo replaced him after that.
Majors’ star has been on the rise. In addition to his Marvel work, he received acclaim for his starring role in Lovecraft Country, for which he was nominated for an Emmy, and Creed III. He had been generating awards buzz for his role in the smaller film Magazine Dreams, but that has been pulled from release by studio Searchlight. This guilty verdict makes it even less likely that this picture will come out at all.
The fact of the matter is that Marvel’s “multiverse” storyline has not been a hit with fans. The way Loki Season Two ended, it could be easy to simply write Kang out entirely. Should Marvel recast the role or simply discard him?
More importantly, do you think Jonathan Majors’ career will survive?
