After months of remaining silent on the issue, Marvel Studios acted quickly and decisively in dropping Jonathan Majors from the MCU after the actor was convicted by a jury of his peers.
Majors was found guilty of one misdemeanor count of assault and one count of harassment after the actor and his ex-girlfriend, Grace Jabbari, got into a physical altercation last March.
Photo: People
Following the verdict, Jabbari’s lawyer Brittany Henderson said in a statement that “justice has been served,” while noting that the verdict was proof that “no abuser, no matter how powerful they may seem, is above the law.”
Photo: Radar Online
From the other side, Majors’ attorney, Priya Chaudhry, told Newsweek that 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 injuries to her. We are grateful for that.”
What Does Marvel Do Now?
Majors was set to permeate the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) as the multiversal villain Kang.
Photo by Chuck Zlotnick. ©Marvel Studios 2021. All Rights Reserved.
After debuting in Loki season 1, Majors has reprised his role as Kang in Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania and Loki season 2. While many have speculated that Marvel will recast the role of Kang, that may not be the case.
Marvel Drops ‘Kang Dynasty’ Name
As part of the news that Marvel had dropped Majors, The Hollywood Reporter revealed that the name of Avengers: The Kang Dynasty had reverted back to Avengers 5.
This has led to whispers that Marvel may decide to move on from the Kang character and instead focus on a different “big bad.”
Rumors that Marvel was considering cutting the cord on the Kang storyline had bubbled up before Majors’ conviction.
Was An Overhaul Already in the Works?
With Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania failing at the box office even though the film served as Kang’s proper debut, Marvel’s faith in the character began to wane.
Photo: D23
Then, Majors was arrested in March. While Marvel did not immediately drop the actor like most Hollywood entities did, the studio knew it would need a backup plan.
In November, Variety reported that Loki creator Michael Waldron was signing on to write a new screenplay for Kang Dynasty, adding fuel to the rumors that Marvel was changing course.
Michael Waldron. Image Credit: Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images for Disney
Additionally, last month, filmmaker Destin Daniel Cretton exited as Kang Dynasty‘s director, which perhaps led credence to the idea that an overhaul was underway.
The Future of the MCU
While Marvel has yet to announce what the fate of Kang will be, their decision will have major implications for the future of the MCU.
For the first time since the franchise became a box office behemoth (perhaps outside of the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic), Marvel is going to have to change its planned narrative because of external factors.
Photo: Disney
What happens next could very well influence the MCU for years to come.
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