Jonathan Majors Out as Kang After Guilty Verdicts

Movies

Earlier today, Jonathan Majors was found guilty of reckless assault in the third degree and harassment, two of the four charges filed against him in New York. (He was found not guilty of the two other charges – intentional assault in the third degree and aggravated harassment.) Not long after the verdict was rendered, a “source close to the studio” confirmed to Variety that Marvel Studios has “parted ways” with the actor. Majors has played Kang the Conqueror, the major villain in the fourth and fifth phases of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, who was poised to be the antagonist of the next Avengers movie, subtitled The Kang Dynasty, and possibly the subsequent one, Secret Wars. While many other institutions dropped Majors when the charges were filed, including his publicists and talent managers, Marvel and Disney stuck with him till today.

I can’t comment on the case itself, as aside from the occasional headline dropped in my Twitter feed, I haven’t been following it; all I can do is hope justice was served. But as for the Marvel situation, it seemed like the studio had been preparing for this. About a month ago, Joanna Robinson, who co-wrote the recently released “tell-all” book MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios, was told by inside sources that Marvel was “moving away” from Kang, which was why they fired Kang Dynasty screenwriter Jeff Loveness. (I suspect another reason was that Loveness wrote Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania – not so much because it sucked as because it bombed.) Then, director Destin Daniel Cretton left the film, and Marvel hired Secret Wars scripter Michael Waldron to take over writing duties; rumors are also swirling that they’re looking to bring on a director – possibly Sam Raimi – to helm both The Kang Dynasty and Secret Wars, instead of having separate creative teams. While some are speculating that Marvel will recast Kang (John David Washington is trending on Twitter for that very reason), these moves suggest that they will discard Kang as the villain and move on to someone else.

And that’s the better move from a creative standpoint. As I’ve been saying, Marvel dropped the ball on Kang from the moment they introduced him as a goofy buffoon on Loki; since then, the ball has been kicked into a ravine and had sharp stones thrown at it. The character has been irreparably tarnished in his appearances so far, and it’s hard to see him as a serious threat. There are rumblings of Doctor Doom replacing Kang, and with the Fantastic Four script supposedly being re-written, it’s possible they’re going that route. But the larger problem is that instead of bringing on new writers to make the best of the situation and get their franchise back on track, Marvel is playing musical chairs with their creatives, tapping in members of their post-Endgame stable, so it’s hard to muster up any faith in them righting the ship. Doctor Doom is one of the all-time great villains, but if he’s being written by the guy who penned Kang’s first appearance, what are the odds that he’ll be anything but a joke in the movies? And Marvel has seemingly lost its ability to figure out what works and what doesn’t, if they even care anymore. We can hope for the best, but if the same people who gave us Kang the Dancing Clown are going to be crafting the MCU as it rejiggers itself, get set to watch Doctor Doom do the Urkel.