‘It gave people pause’: Marvel was already thinking of ditching Jonathan Majors as Kang before his legal troubles even began

Ever since Jonathan Majors was arrested for domestic violence in March 2023, it’s felt like his MCU career has had a shadow hanging over it. Despite the actor remaining aboard the Multiverse Saga, however, it turns out Marvel has been having doubts about him even before his brushes with the law began.

According to a stunning expose from Variety, it was actually the disappointing performance of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania — both financially and critically — that left the studio wondering if it had made a mistake in hedging all its bets on the success of Majors as Kang the Conqueror. A “studio source” notes that Marvel “already had considered moving away from a Majors-led phase” once Quantumania came out in February, several weeks prior to his arrest. “It gave people pause given that Quantumania didn’t exactly land,” the source says.

This isn’t the first time we’ve heard that Marvel was floored when Ant-Man 3 turned out to be one of the worst-reviewed MCU movies ever, as recent tell-all book MCU: Reign of Marvel Studios claimed that studio execs were convinced they had made a “banger” so were stunned when audiences and critics alike turned their noses up at the Paul Rudd-starring threequel.

Despite rumblings about sidelining Majors having apparently going on for much of the past year, Marvel has yet to make a public decision about his continued commitment as Kang. That said, Disney doesn’t appear to have much faith in the actor amid his damaged reputation, given that his next movie, one-time Oscar contender Magazine Dreams, has just been removed from the slate mere weeks ahead of its planned release this December.