Months after Jonathan Majors was fired from the MCU, and over a year since he was first arrested on assault charges, Marvel is surprisingly still yet to find its new Kang. A whole bunch of actors have been championed as perfect replacements, however.
John Boyega, Aldis Hodge, and especially Colman Domingo have risen up in recent times to become fan-favorites, but there’s one legendary name in particular who would surely be the absolute surest choice for Kang 2.0. if Marvel would be lucky enough to get him. However spectacular, say, Domingo would be as the character, it can’t be denied that getting the one and only Denzel Washington in the MCU, not to mention as its latest big bad, would create huge shockwaves that would no doubt bring a lot of people back to the franchise.
What’s more, casting an older actor like Washington would sidestep any potential continuity issues with replacing Majors — Kang wouldn’t be recast just aged-up. Some might argue that Kang’s appearances in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and Loki season 2 damaged his perception as a serious threat. Well, needless to say Denzel Washington as Kang would put that right as soon as he showed up on screen. Just look how he’s destroying Marvel heroes on streaming.
A Denzel Washington crime thriller is doing big things on Netflix
2021’s The Little Things is currently the most popular movie on Netflix in the United States, as per Flix Patrol. Like many mid-level projects released during the pandemic, the neo-noir crime thriller didn’t really get a chance to fly when it first came out, but now it’s finding its audience on streaming several years later. How’s that for proof that movie lovers still see Washington as a major draw?
From The Blind Side director John Lee Hancock, the film — set in 1990s Los Angeles — sees Washington team up with Rami Malek to play a pair of detectives who investigate a series of murders, with a creepy loner at the top of their suspect list. It’s the sort of plot we’ve all seen before in entries in this genre, but the talented cast and excellent performances make up for the story’s familiarity.
The Little Things may co-star Morbius‘ Jared Leto himself, but clearly people aren’t holding that against it as it’s proven so popular it’s knocked both Split and The Accountant into the second and third rankings — two movies which happen to feature former Marvel superheroes in the lead. M. Night Shyamalan’s Split memorably features X-Men‘s James MacAvoy as a killer with Dissociative Identity Disorder while former chart-topper The Accountant stars one-time Daredevil and five-time Batman Ben Affleck.
With The Little Things proving a big deal on Netlix, Washington has proven that he can foil Jared Leto’s evil schemes, exorcise Professor X, and dare to defeat an old Daredevil. Tell me again why he’s not the ultimate choice to play the new Kang in Avengers 5 and 6?
