As Jonathan Majors‘ future in the Marvel franchise grows increasingly uncertain, given that the actor is being dropped by both his reps and other upcoming projects as well as more allegations against him coming out, MCU fans have been busying themselves by imagining who could theoretically replace him as Kang. Countless talented stars have been pitched as perfect candidates for the recast Conqueror, including everyone from Denzel Washington to Damson Idris.
And yet now the tide seems to be turning against this idea as the Marvel hivemind is now under the impression that simply recasting Kang is way too obvious and it might be better if Kevin Feige and company think even bigger. Namely, by ditching the temporal tyrant as the big bad of the Multiverse Saga as a whole and introducing a left-field new antagonist to make the Avengers’ lives a misery. Ironically, the character they’re going for just happens to be played by Majors’ on-screen enemy.
As per an ambitious (some would say absurd) Reddit fan theory, the notion goes that Kang could be shockingly killed off and replaced by none other than Erik Killmonger. All Marvel would need to do is switch the name of Avengers 5 to The Killmonger Dynasty and move on from there. There’s even some precedent for the Black Panther villain proving to be a multiversal threat — a Killmonger variant stole the Infinity Stones from Ultron in the What If…? season one finale.
It would be extremely ironic if Majors ended up replaced as the Multiverse Saga’s big bad by Michael B. Jordan of all people, considering their prior cinematic rivalry in Creed III. Even if this turn of events does seem pretty far-fetched, there are other options for characters who could replace Kang, including the killer of one of his variants, Loki‘s Sylvie. But can Marvel really kick Kang to the curb? Who knows, as the future of the Sacred Timeline is yet to be written.