The MCU Is Now Reportedly Backing Away From Jonathan Majors’ Kang

While the Kang-focused Loki finale was one of the best MCU moments in years, the idea that the Marvel universe is continuing to march toward a broader conflict with scores of Kang variants may be in jeopardy, and plans might be about to drastically change.

According to MCU expert Joanna Robinson on the House of R Ringer podcast, who cautions that this should be taken with a large amount of salt, and is currently unverifiable, Marvel may have removed Quantumania writer Jeff Loveness from Avengers: The Kang Dynasty because they’re reportedly moving away from Kang altogether.

If true, there would likely be two reasons for this, one perhaps more relevant than the other.

The first is Kang’s actor, Jonathan Majors, who in a vacuum, I think most people agree he’s done a great job as at least three distinct Kang variants so far, the Conqueror, He Who Remains and Victor Timely. You can see why Marvel tapped him for the role.

However, Majors himself is a problem. After a fight with a woman, Majors was charged with misdemeanor assault, aggravated harassment, attempted assault and harassment, and though he’s pled not guilty, there are multiple women who have come forward alleging similar behavior in the past. When all this came out, Majors was promptly dropped from multiple movie, TV and advertising projects, and was cut by his own agency. The one place that did not drop him was Disney, given that a multi-billion dollar universe hinged on his villain character.

While Majors has not been convicted of anything yet, the case has yet to play out and it is perhaps not shocking that Disney may not want to wait to see if their lead villain ends up in jail or not by the time the Kang Dynasty rolls around. So, regardless of the eventual outcome, they may try to replace Majors sooner rather than later and get started on a backup plan.

However, you could just recast Majors’ Kang. I mean, this is the multiverse after all and we just had a movie with three different people playing Peter Parker. But the desire to move away from Kang more generally has other roots.

While Kang was a good villain for Loki as a series, that storyline seems pretty well wrapped up, despite hints about other Kang threats to come. And the movie where Kang was the main villain, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, is generally viewed as one of the worst MCU offerings, one where Kang is eventually defeated by…ants.

Other than the existence of the Kang Dynasty, there does not appear to be any firm, future projects that must have Kang in them. Deadpool 3, Captain America 4, Thunderbolts, Blade, Fantastic Four. On Disney Plus, Echo, Armor Wars, Ironheart, Daredevil. None of these seem like they would need links to Kang. Maybe to the wider multiverse, but Kang would likely be little more than a credits sting.

It feels like Marvel has already planted seeds for a large slate of other over-arching storylines besides Kang. We have the Thunderbolts villain/anti-hero team being slowly assembled by Valentina Allegra de Fontaine. We have Kamala Khan now forming the Young Avengers. We have the FOX X-Men crossing over. We have the Fantastic Four coming, and with them, the potential of Doctor Doom, a villain that has been floated as a possible Kang replacement, and one that was integral to the actual comic storyline of Secret Wars, meant to be the second Avengers movie after Kang Dynasty.

My guess is that yes, Marvel will indeed move away from Kang. Mainly because of Majors, but they wouldn’t want to recast him either, as the MCU is wobbily and it seems unlikely a grand fight against Kang will save it. Doctor Doom? Magneto? Yeah, perhaps.

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