Summary

Jonathan Majors has been fired by Marvel Studios after being found guilty of harassment and assault, leaving the MCU without an overarching villain. Majors’ sentencing is set for February 6, 2024, and he may face up to one year in prison. The future of Kang the Conqueror’s storyline in the MCU is uncertain, with possibilities including recasting the role or replacing him with another big Marvel villain like Doctor Doom.

It didn’t seem possible for Marvel Studios’ year to get any worse after some dismal results at the box office, but today’s guilty verdict in Jonathan Majors’ assault has resulted in the studio firing the actor from future involvement in the franchise. This leaves the current Marvel Cinematic Universe storyline in limbo, without an overarching villain.

Earlier today, Majors was found guilty on two counts of harassment and assault and acquitted of two other counts. According to Variety, the actor showed little reaction when the verdict was delivered. He is now set to be sentenced on February 6, 2024, and this could be up to one year in prison.

Ahead of that, though, Marvel Studios has done the expected and severed all ties with the actor, whose career had been soaring in the last year thanks to starring roles in Creed III and his casting as Kang the Conqueror in the MCU. Majors made his Marvel debut in the first season of Loki, appearing in the final episode as “He Who Remains.” He later appeared as multiple Kangs in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, and then returned again in Loki season 2 as both He Who Remains and Victor Timely, another Kang variant. While it was originally believed that he would appear in other Marvel projects before then, his big moment would come as the title character of Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and the subsequent Avengers: Secret Wars.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, sources have revealed that The Kang Dynasty is now being referred to only as Avengers 5 while Loki’s Michael Waldron works on a new version of the script.

Related: Denzel Washington Replaces Jonathan Majors as MCU’s Kang in Fan Art Recast

Will Kang Be Replaced in the MCU?
Walt Disney Studios

Marvel Studios are taking a kind of hiatus in the next year, and perhaps this is something that had as much to do with Majors’ pending legal proceedings as a need to take stock and slow down the production of Marvel projects. 2024 will see only Deadpool 3 released in cinemas, with Fantastic Four not arriving until early 2025.

The last couple of months have been rife with rumors of Kang the Conqueror being replaced by another big Marvel villain, Doctor Doom. While this has been debunked previously, there is now a real possibility that this could happen with Majors out of the picture.

Of course, there is always the option to recast the role, as the changing faces of characters in the multiverse could explain such a move. It would certainly not be the first time that Marvel have had to recast a prominent character, although not in these circumstances. Previously Edward Norton’s Bruce Banner was swapped for Mark Ruffalo, Terrance Howard’s James Rhodes for Don Cheadle, and William Hurt’s Thaddeus Ross for Harrison Ford following the former’s death. For now though, the future of Kang in the MCU is something that will be getting a lot of attention behind the scenes, and we can expect an official view to follow soon.