 |
| Jonathan Majors |
Jonathan Majors, a rising star in Hollywood, has been dropped from two planned Avengers movies after being found guilty of assault and harassment charges related to an altercation with then-girlfriend Grace Jabbari in New York in March. Majors' career had been on the rise since he broke through in the acclaimed 2019 drama The Last Black Man in San Francisco before starting to star in Netflix western The Harder They Fall. He also appeared in Spike Lee's war drama film Da 5 Bloods, earned an Emmy nomination for HBO's Lovecraft Country, and played Michael B Jordan's adversary in the boxing sequel Creed III earlier this year.
Majors was hotly tipped for an Oscar nomination after playing an amateur bodybuilder in another drama, Magazine Dreams, following its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year - but its release was delayed after his arrest. Marvel Studios recruited the actor to play variants of the mighty multiverse-spanning Kang in the Disney+ series Loki, and he made his big-screen Marvel debut in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.
Marvel Studios had more riding on Jonathan Majors than perhaps any other actor, according to the 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," wrote Rolling Stone magazine's Alan Sepinwall.
Marvel's decision to dump him comes as the studio seeks to re-establish itself as the all-conquering blockbuster machine following a string of lukewarm performances. The studio's latest release, The Marvels, recorded its lowest box office opening, and once-enthusiastic audiences have been diagnosed with a condition dubbed "superhero fatigue." So, the company could take Majors' departure as a moment to overhaul its plans and kick-start a change in direction.
Avengers: The Kang Dynasty has not started filming and lost director Destin Daniel Cretton last month, with Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness writer Michael Waldron recently coming on board to rework the story. The film could move away from the Kang character and pivot to a different antagonist, with other supervillain storylines, such as Doctor Doom, yet to be explored in the MCU.
However, Marvel may not be so willing to part from the Kang storyline quite quickly, with half a decade's worth of projects based around the character. That leaves them with the option to replace Majors with a different actor, which is not unprecedented in the Marvel universe.
For Majors himself, the solution is perhaps less straightforward. These were misdemeanour charges, and he faces up to a year in jail or probation when he's sentenced in February. Other actors have returned from similar situations after time and repentance, with independent films more likely to offer him a route than big studios.
One of Hollywood's most promising talents is unlikely to return to the same heights, and he is the only one to blame.
