Why a Jonathan Majors Conviction Was Good News for Marvel Studios
Disney got the green light to remove a problematic actor and pivot away from a Kang-centric storyline that failed to resonate with audiences
Jonathan Majors is out of the MCU. Whatever outcry we’ve heard since the actor was arrested in March for an altercation involving allegations of domestic abuse – namely in terms of if he would continue playing the cosmic baddie – the studio waited until he was convicted in a court of law. Fair or not, the last thing Disney wanted to do was fire a promising and acclaimed young Black actor at the first sign of scandal, only to watch the narrative change in that actor’s favor. However, Majors has been found guilty of harassment and reckless assault, so Disney will face almost no negative handwringing for the decision to remove him from the Marvel films and shows. Moreover, in a skewed irony, the circumstances ended up working in Disney’s favor, at least for now. The legal finding allowed the studio to drop a problematic actor *and* change course amid an unpopular storyline.
The plan to make Kang the next Thanos
Whether Kevin Feige and friends always intended for Kang to be the new “Big Bad” following Avengers: Endgame, or they were so impressed by Majors’ performances in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and Loki that they decided to make Kang the new Thanos, they committed accordingly. Marvel announced Avengers: The Kang Dynasty during the 2022 SDCC, a year after the actor (already breaking out as a prestige actor in the likes of The Last Black Man in San Francisco and The Harder They Fall) made his in-universe debut as “He Who Remains” on the season one finale of Loki. The extended exposition/dialogue-driven sequence introduced just one version of Kang, with Majors surprising audiences with what played like the Architect from The Matrix Reloaded on cocaine. Yes, that’s a compliment. However, his turn in the third Ant-Man movie, released in February of 2023, was arguably a more conventional stone-faced, gravitas-focused heel turn.
More importantly, Peyton Reed’s third Ant-Man movie, which plopped Scott Lang’s family into the Quantum Realm amid visually generic fantasy elements, was Marvel Studios’ worst movie. That’s from someone who liked Ant-Man (Marvel does heist flicks) and loved Ant-Man and the Wasp (Marvel does the 1950s-1970s Disney family fantasies). The film crashed amid horrible reviews and indifferent buzz after a $110 million Fri-Mon debut, earning $214 million domestically and $476 million worldwide. That was on par with the domestic ($216 million from a $77 million debut) and worldwide total ($620 million but with a now pipe-dreamy $125 million from China) of Ant-Man 2. However, it cost $200 million, compared to $165 million for its predecessor. Moreover, Disney selling the film not as an Ant-Man sequel but as “the start of a new dynasty” and the big intro for the Big Bad -- a can’t-miss mythology episode like Captain America: Civil War – backfired.
The man who would be Kang becomes problematic
A month later, fresh off a critically acclaimed co-starring role in Michael B. Jordan’s Creed III, Majors found himself in legal jeopardy for a crime of violence against a domestic partner. This thrust him and Marvel into an ongoing debate over problematic performers and to what extent their offscreen behavior should impact their onscreen careers. Would Marvel drop Majors while Warner Bros. kept Ezra Miller onboard as The Flash? Sure, DC Films’ The Flash was mostly finished, and Miller was in almost every scene often playing against themselves – but such nuance and context is non-existent in much of the media. Majors was dropped by his representation almost immediately. His acclaimed bodybuilding drama, Searchlight’s Sundance pick-up Magazine Dreams, was removed from Disney’s release schedule and currently remains in limbo (coming soon to Hulu?). By default, the remaining open question in terms of Majors's onscreen career was whether he’d remain in the MCU.
Majors appeared in the second season of Loki (shot in the back half of 2022), but the show ended in a way that could have theoretically spelled the end for Kang and his variants. Loki was arguably stand-alone unto itself just as Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania was a 95% stand-alone Ant-Man sequel. Contrary to popular belief and online chatter, most MCU movies and Disney+ television shows – especially aside from the Avengers team-ups, are newbie-friendly and treat the interconnectivity as a seasoning rather than the main ingredient. However, Disney had committed to making Kang the Big Bad, and they had bet the core appeal of the otherwise generic interdimensional traveler(s) on the raw talent, screen presence and heartthrob appeal of the actor playing him. In a skewed way, it was a long-form variation on the Tim Burton/Joel Schumacher Batman movies, where the colorful villains stole the show and overshadowed the heroes.
Two wrongs make a right
By late March, Marvel Studios found itself in an unexpected pickle. The big debut of Kang the Conqueror had landed with a thud. Think how The Avengers might have played out if Thor – introducing Tom Hiddleston’s Loki -- was a disliked box office bomb. Concurrently, Majors had gone from among the most promising would-be leading men to downright radioactive. That both circumstances took place made solving both easier for Marvel and Disney. Had Majors’ Kang the Conqueror been embraced and generated future-tense MCU excitement, recasting him with or without a conviction would have been a blow for the studio. Had Majors avoided that conviction (or just not done the crime), then Marvel trying to reverse course amid a poorly received debut film could have been dicey. Positioning a prestigious Black actor as a franchise star only to back-peddle after the failure of a Paul Rudd-starring Ant-Man movie would have had a “Not great, Bob” look.
With Majors convicted of a violent crime against a partner, Disney can drop him with little negative consequence. Concurrently, the core hook for why Kang was supposed to be “special” is also gone. Yes, Marvel could still recast, as there are countless underappreciated and/or underemployed Black actors (beyond the obvious fan-casting choices like Lakeith Stanfield or John Boyega) to choose from. However, they now have the license to pivot away from Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and toward, I dunno, Avengers: Victor von Doom Finally Gets His PhD. Marvel must still make the MCU an A+ cinematic tourist destination again, but now they can safely readjust. A well-received Kang played by an actor landing in criminal jeopardy *or* a poorly-received Kang played by a squeaky-clean Majors would have been challenging. Once both circumstances transpired, they each presented the solution to each other. In this unlikely scenario, two wrongs somewhat made a right.