Jonathan Majors was once seen as an emerging figure both in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) and outside of it. Due to his unexpected performance in the MCU, writers and the like were consistently kept on their toes, revising their stories to better suit the actor’s energy.
Majors was first introduced in the Disney+ series “Loki,” where he takes on the role of He Who Remains or Kang the Conqueror, a key figure for Marvel’s Phases 5 and 6 that would lead into the Multiverse Saga of the MCU. Since his appearance in the popular TV series and film “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania”, Majors’ performance has received overwhelmingly positive responses from critics.
Though not directly stated, the planned main antagonist or core focus for the aforementioned phases was either the Beyonder or Doctor Doom, as both characters are closely related to the “Secret Wars” plot in the comics. As they lead up to the upcoming “Secret Wars” event, the film needed to lay some groundwork similar to what the Guardians of the Galaxy films did for Thanos and his “Infinity Wars” and “Endgame” films. However, it was because of Majors’ performance that the writers decided to place all their bets on this one actor to carry Phases 5 and 6 forward.
This information came to light when Joanna Robinson, who is writing the upcoming “MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios” book, explained the situation during an episode of “The Ringer’s The Big Picture” podcast. She revealed that Kang was not meant to be the focus of Phases 5 and 6. Unfortunately, due to the allegations thrown at Majors, he has once again changed the MCU, albeit for the worse.
“I was told by someone who works for Marvel, it was not the plan to make Kang the centre of everything until they saw the dailies from ‘Quantumania’ and after his performance in ‘Loki,’ which was so strong they were like, ‘This is it. This is our way forward’… They don’t usually hang this much on one person in the way that they did here. And that has put them in a bind. We do not know what they are going to do. I’ve heard conflicting stories about… they are going to replace him, they’re not even considering replacing him, etc, etc. But it’s just one more thing.” – Joanna Robinson.
Why say this now? Unfortunately, the MCU cannot replace or remove Majors from the role, as a contract had already been set into motion before the controversy and subsequent lawsuit erupted. However, there have been rumours that Majors is in the process of being recast in a different role, but no official statement has been made. Conversely, the mere mention of Kang or Majors has been blacklisted from promotional materials until further notice.
