Chapter partner?
Majors played the role of Kang the Conqueror – the main antagonist of the Marvel multiverse.
According to Variety, the studio fired the actor after he was convicted on December 18 on two counts of stalking and assaulting his ex-girlfriend Grace Jabbari. Majors also pleaded not guilty to third-degree premeditated assault and second-degree aggravated stalking.
The actor was arrested on March 25 when Jabbari complained about the attack. Grace said she saw a text message from another woman and wanted to take Majors’ phone – he took it by force, breaking her finger; when the girl got out of the car, the actor hit her on the head and tried to push her back into the cabin.
The defense of the 34-year-old actor denied the attack, claiming that Jabbari herself was the aggressor when she tried to take the phone.
During the nearly two-week trial, prosecutors released a series of text and audio messages between Majors and Jabbari in which the actor allegedly tried to convince the girl not to go to the hospital and threatened to kill herself. Jonathan also said that Grace needs to “act like Coretta Scott King and Michelle Obama” because he is “a great person” who is “doing great things not only for her, but for the culture and the world.”
Since his arrest, Majors has been dropped by his talent manager and advertising firm. The actor is no longer involved in Protagonist Pictures’ I Hate the Man in My Basement. The US Army previously launched an ad campaign featuring Majors, as did the Texas Rangers baseball team. Several other projects with the actor, including Lee Spike’s Da Understudy for Amazon and Dennis Rodman’s 48 Hours in Vegas for Lionsgate, remain in limbo.
At the same time, the decision to leave Marvel is the biggest and loudest loss for the actor. Majors first played a multiverse-traveling version of Kang the Conqueror in 2021’s Loki, as well as Marvel’s February release Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantum of Solace.
The actor also played a variation of Kang named Victor Timely in the second season of Loki, which aired on Disney+ in the fall (production on the series ended a few months before his arrest). Majors was next set to headline the first installment of the culminating Multiverse saga, Avengers: Age of Ultron, which was originally slated to begin filming in early 2024, but in June Marvel pushed the film’s release date from 2025 to 2026.
Kevin Feige and Marvel have already discussed focusing on a different character — and now could choose a different villain, change actors, or cancel Kang Dynasty altogether, reconfiguring the rest of the Multiverse saga. The interconnected nature of the Marvel Cinematic Universe means that whatever the studio decides – everything will have expensive consequences, while Disney has entered an era of austerity.
Majors generally started 2023 as one of the industry’s most in-demand actors, co-headlining Creed III alongside Michael B. Jordan and earning wide acclaim at the Sundance Film Festival for his performance in the bodybuilding drama Dream Journal. Searchlight Pictures – another Disney subsidiary – picked up the latest film as a potential award contender for a December release, but quietly pulled it from its calendar in October and it has yet to receive a new release date.
Chapter partner?
