The encyclopedia · Strategy & Leadership · Strategic decision · 2023–2024
Marvel built its next saga around Jonathan Majors — one guilty verdict deleted the plan
Convicted 18 Dec 2023, Majors was dropped by Marvel the same day — the Kang saga, set up across three projects, was scrapped for Doctor Doom.
Marvel Studios · 2023-12-18
What happened
Marvel made Jonathan Majors the centrepiece of its Multiverse Saga: he played Kang in the Loki season one finale, headlined Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania as the villain, returned in Loki season two, and was next set to lead Avengers: The Kang Dynasty. Every version of the saga's main antagonist was the same actor.
On 18 December 2023 a jury convicted Majors of two misdemeanour counts of harassment and assault against his former girlfriend. Marvel parted ways the same day. His manager and publicist dropped him, the US Army and Texas Rangers pulled ad campaigns featuring him, and Searchlight pulled his film Magazine Dreams from its release calendar.
The saga's plan died with the contract. The Kang Dynasty was removed from Marvel's slate, and at Comic-Con in July 2024 the studio announced Avengers: Doomsday (May 2026) with Robert Downey Jr. as Doctor Doom — the villain arc built across three projects was scrapped and rebuilt around a new face. The bet was already wobbling: Quantumania, made on a reported $214 million budget, had grossed about $476 million worldwide — a weak result for a film meant to launch the saga's finale.
Why it happened
- Marvel put its whole next saga on one person: every Kang on screen was the same actor, so there was no quiet recast without rebuilding the plan.
- The studio had no contingency for a lead-actor catastrophe — the verdict landed in a day and the arc went with it.
- The launchpad film had already underperformed: the strategy was showing weakness before the person collapsed.
The lesson
When a multi-film plan lives in one actor, the studio's risk lives there too — Marvel had three projects of Kang setup and nothing to fall back on the day the verdict landed.
Aftermath
Marvel rebuilt its next two Avengers films around Doctor Doom; Kang Dynasty was dropped from the release slate entirely.
Sources
- Jonathan Majors Dropped by Marvel Studios After Guilty Verdict — Variety, 18 December 2023
- Jonathan Majors: Marvel drops actor after domestic assault conviction — BBC, 18 December 2023
- Robert Downey Jr. To Play Dr. Doom In 'Avengers 5' — Deadline, 28 July 2024
spotted an error? The club wants to know.
More like this
Paramount Global reunited CBS and Viacom — then lost $6.2B in a year
Warner Bros bet $220M on Ezra Miller — and released a bomb it couldn't promote
Twitter bought Vine and then shut it down — letting TikTok fill the vacuum
Somewhere, someone solved the problem this company failed at. 2nd Opinion →
Comments · 0
Sign in to join the comments.