Marvel drops Jonathan Majors after domestic violence trial verdict
Written by ABC AUDIO ALL RIGHTS RESERVED on December 19, 2023
Disney has dropped Jonathan Majors from future productions as the Marvel villain Kang, the studio said on Monday evening.
The studio’s decision came just hours after the actor was found guilty of one count of third-degree assault and one count of second-degree harassment, but acquitted of two other counts of assault and aggravated harassment in a split verdict. Both counts he was convicted on were misdemeanors.
Disney is the parent company of ABC News and Marvel.
Majors, 34, had been charged with assault and aggravated harassment, all misdemeanors, stemming from a March altercation with his then-girlfriend, Grace Jabbari, in New York City.
The actor is scheduled to be sentenced for the two guilty counts on Feb. 6. He faces up to a year in prison on the two misdemeanor counts, though that sentence is unlikely for a first-time offender.
Marvel first announced Majors in the role of Kang in December 2020. He was set to play Kang in multiple movies and TV shows, including Avengers: Kang Dynasty which is slated for a 2026 release date.
The character’s complex history in the comics allowed for Majors to play multiple versions of Kang in each film and TV show.
Majors made his first appearance in the Marvel Cinematic Universe playing “He Who Remains,” a Kang variant, in the season one finale of the Disney+ series Loki, which premiered in July 2021.
Majors played another version of the character, Kang the Conqueror, in 2023’s Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, and another variant, Victor Timely, in the second season of Loki, which premiered a few months later.
Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.