Jan. 5, 2024

What’s Next for Marvel without Jonathan Majors?

Following the firing of Jonathan Majors, Marvel has officially lost their main antagonist moving forward. They have several options, whether to recast Kang the Conqueror with another actor or move away from their originally planned storyline. By: Dylan Low

Trending actor Jonathan Majors was at the pinnacle of Hollywood superstardom. He had quickly risen to fame in recent years, starring in acclaimed 2019 drama The Last Black Man, Netflix western show The Harder They Fall, alongside an appearance in blockbuster film Creed III this year. With his crucial role in the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, this has raised questions for Marvel’s future plans, following news of his conviction of assault and firing from Marvel.

Majors was supposedly at the centre of Marvel’s next phase of film series, to garner attention and excitement amongst fans – which would have also benefited his career in solidifying his status as a great actor.

His debut as supervillain Kang the Conqueror was widely commended by many as the only good reason behind the success of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, which garnered mixed reviews and box office results when released back in February.

"Magnetic Jonathan Majors is the saving grace of Marvel's baffling, illogical latest outing," claimed by Sunday British newspaper the Observer.

“You're on edge every moment he's onscreen”, mentioned by the Hollywood Reporter. Time Out further included, “There's a lot more Majors to come in future Marvel films and he's really the only thing here that makes a continued story look even vaguely enticing.”

These compliments and praises proved to be short-lived, as news was unveiled of Majors found guilty of two charges of assault and harassment for an altercation with previous girlfriend Grace Jabbari in New York back in March. He was found not guilty of two further charges. After this news were released, Marvel made a decision to drop him from the two of their other planned films titled Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and Avengers: Secret Wars, slated to premiere in 2026 and 2027 respectively. 

“Marvel had more riding on Jonathan Majors than perhaps any other actor,” commented by Associated Press's film writer Jake Coyle. “Now it's parting ways with him, and throwing years of plans for its cinematic universe in disarray.”

Marvel Studios is currently going through a sequence of lukewarm box-office performances, seen in their latest film The Marvels achieving its lowest box-office debut. They could see Majors’ departure as a reason to change their direction and filmmaking plans. After all, The Kang Dynasty has yet to begin filming, which Marvel could look to move away from Kang and introduce other prominent antagonists such as Doctor Doom. 

However having spent half a decade around Kang’s storyline, they could stick to featuring the villain known as He Who Remains through a character recast. 

“Their options are recast, or leave what they have done and introduce a new villain, but that's going to take a lot of time," stated Alvin Addo-Quaye, who is a Big A movie and pop culture reviewer on TikTok. 

“I personally would prefer a recast. Even though we've only seen Jonathan Majors play Kang and the various different versions of Kang, I would still be fine for another actor to take on the role because you can suspend your disbelief.

“It's a comic book movie at the end of the day. I think doing a new villain is too much of a long haul.”

With plenty of options Marvel has to work with, only time will tell as to what decision they will take for their future films. 

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