Marvel fires Jonathan Majors following his conviction

NEW YORK – Marvel trusted Jonathan Majors perhaps more than any other actor. He is now parting ways with her, shattering years of plans for the cinematic universe.

Marvel Studios and Walt Disney Co. have removed Majors from all future projects after the actor was convicted of assault and harassment on Monday, according to a person close to the studio who spoke on condition of anonymity. Subject.

Disney’s swift move marked a surprising turnaround for an actor who was one of Hollywood’s fastest-rising stars. A jury in Manhattan on Monday found Major, 34, guilty of a misdemeanor assault charge and a harassment violation stemming from a March altercation with his then-girlfriend Grace Jabbari.

Majors, who was acquitted of separate assault and aggravated harassment charges, will be sentenced on February 6. He declined to comment as he left the courthouse. “It is clear that the jury did not believe Grace Jabbari’s story of what happened in the SUV, because they found that Mr. Majors did not intentionally cause any harm to Grace Jabbari,” Majors’ attorney, Priya Chaudhry, said in a statement.

“Mr. Majors still has faith in the process and looks forward to fully clearing his name,” Chaudhry said.

As the superhero studio prepares the fifth phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it has cast the critically acclaimed Majors as the antagonist Kang the Conqueror. The character would go on to span multiple films and TV series as the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s next-phase answer to “Avengers: Endgame” villain Thanos.

Majors had already appeared in “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” and the first two seasons of “Loki.” He was set to star in “Avengers: The Kang Dynasty”, which will be released in May 2026.

The future of the “Kang Dynasty” is now uncertain. Disney declined to comment on whether it would recast the role of Kang or turn in a new direction.

The studio is preparing for the possibility of Majors exiting the series. However, Marvel’s ability to rewrite was limited due to the screenwriters’ strike, which lasted from May to the end of September. The studio recently hired screenwriter Michael Waldron to remaster “The Kang Dynasty.”

For Marvel, Majors’ departure adds to a string of recent setbacks. Although the nearly $30 billion worldwide box office success from 33 films is unprecedented in cinema history, the superhero factory has seen some unusual struggles lately. “The Marvels,” which opened in November, was the MCU’s worst theatrical performer, with $204 million in worldwide ticket sales.

Majors also recently played a troubled amateur bodybuilder in “Magazine Dreams,” which premiered to critical acclaim at the Sundance Film Festival in January and was acquired by Disney-owned independent distributor Searchlight Pictures. Following its premiere, a Big Ones Oscar nomination was widely predicted.

“Magazine Dreams” was scheduled to be released in theaters on December 8. However, before Majors’ hearing, Searchlight removed the film from its release calendar. Instead, on the fifth day of the trial on December 8, internal messages from the Majors were read. In one of them, Majors implored Jabbari not to seek medical attention for a head injury that occurred in 2022, warning that he “had no perspective on what might happen” if the truth came out.

In late February, as “Creed III,” in which Majors starred opposite Michael B. Jordan, was being released, Majors spoke in an interview with The Associated Press in the Chelsea neighborhood, just blocks from where he would fight with Jabbari weeks later. It spread to the streets of New York.

Majors was then acutely aware that his rapid new fame risked a decline.

“Even though I haven’t seen the boogeyman, I know it’s out there somewhere,” Majors said. “And I was around to know it was coming. I won’t go down the rabbit hole, but it’s coming. But you’re over it. Just stay out of the frame. “I will stay out of the frame.”

Associated Press writer Jennifer Peltz contributed to this report