Marvel Studios is letting go of Jonathan Majors

Marvel Studios has parted ways with actor Jonathan Majors, who will portray Kang, the arch-enemy of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Multiverse Saga, after he was convicted of two misdemeanor harassment and assault charges against Grace Jabbari on December 18. ex-girlfriend. A source close to the studio also confirmed the decision. Variation.

In the verdict, Majors was also found not guilty of one count of intentional assault in the third degree and one count of aggravated harassment in the second degree.

The actor was arrested on assault and harassment charges on March 25 after Jabbari accused Majors of attacking him in the backseat of a private car after taking his phone to read a text message he received from another woman. Jabbari claimed Majors forcibly took her phone from her, causing an “excruciating” injury to her right middle finger, and that when she got out of the car, Majors hit the back of her head and then tried to force her into the car. causing a cut behind his right ear.

The 34-year-old actor denied attacking Jabbari. His defense team claimed that he was the attacker when he took his phone.

During the trial, which lasted nearly two weeks, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office released a series of disturbing messages between Major and Jabbari and an audio recording used as evidence; these included messages in which the Majors were apparently trying to persuade Jabbari not to go to the hospital after an incident. head trauma and a message in which Majors threatens suicide. In the audio, Majors tells Jabbari that he should act like Corretta Scott King and Michelle Obama because he’s a “great guy” who has “done great things, not just for me, but for my culture and the world.”

Since his arrest, Majors has been dismissed by talent manager Entertainment 360 and advertising firm Lede Company. He is no longer associated with Protagonist Pictures’ “Man in My Basement.” The U.S. Army also mounted a major advertising campaign featuring Majors, as did the Texas Rangers baseball team. Several other projects involving Majors remain in limbo, including Spike Lee’s “Da Understudy” for Amazon and Dennis Rodman’s “48 Hours in Vegas” for Lionsgate.

However, Marvel’s decision to sever ties with the actor is recorded as the highest-profile professional consequence of Majors’ arrest to date. He first portrayed a version of multiverse-hopping villain Kang in the season finale of the 2021 Disney+ series “Loki,” which established the primary storytelling engine for the Marvel Cinematic Universe moving forward and established Majors’ character as a pivotal figure. his heart.

Marvel has created unlimited versions of Kang across the multiverse. Majors was intended to embody all of these; this premise was first explored in Marvel’s February feature release “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.” The actor later portrayed Kang’s version of Victor Timely in Season 2 of “Loki,” which aired on Disney+ in the fall. (Production on the series ended months before his arrest.) Majors was next set to headline the first installment of the Multiverse Saga’s thrilling final chapter, 2025’s “Avengers: Kang Dynasty,” which is expected to begin shooting in early 2024. .

Variation It has been reported that Marvel executives, led by studio chief Kevin Feige, are discussing the possibility of moving away from Kang to focus on another major villain. Now, with the Majors’ departure in charge, Feige and his team have some tough creative decisions ahead of them, including recasting a new actor as Kang or canceling “Kang Dynasty” entirely and restructuring the rest of the Multiverse Saga. The interconnected nature of the Marvel Cinematic Universe means that anything Marvel decides to do could have expensive consequences, at a time when its parent company, Disney, is entering a much more cost-conscious era.

The career consequences of the majors can be even more serious. He kicked off 2023 as one of the industry’s most sought-after actors, starring opposite Michael B. Jordan in “Creed III” and earning critical acclaim from the Sundance Film Festival for his performance in the bodybuilding drama “Magazine Dreams.” Searchlight Pictures, another Disney subsidiary, pegged the second film as a potential awards contender for release in December, but the company quietly pulled the film from its schedule in October. There is no new release date yet.