Marvel star Jonathan Majors (left) was dropped by Disney after he was found guilty of assault and harassment. The company’s CEO Bob Iger (right) has discussed a different approach to the franchise.
John Nacion/Getty Images; Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
Actor Jonathan Majors was found guilty of assault and harassment.He was set to take a starring role in the next phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.Disney is dropping the actor, which could allow for a much needed MCU reset.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe — once the most untouchable brand in Hollywood — just took another blow after a year of gut-punches.
Jonathan Majors, who was supposed to be a cornerstone of the MCU’s next phase as villain Kang the Conquerer, was found guilty of assault and harassment. Majors was acquitted on other charges, including assault with intent to cause injury.
Majors, who had already appeared as the villain in February’s “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” and the second season of Disney+’s “Loki,” was to reprise the role in Marvel’s 2026 movie, “Avengers: The Kang Dynasty.”
But within an hour of being found guilty of the charges — which stemmed from an incident in March involving his ex-girlfriend — Disney cut ties with Majors in what the industry pretty much agrees was a no-brainer.
“I wouldn’t hire him,” one producer, who spoke anonymously for fear of retaliation, told Business Insider. “He was on his way to being big, but I can’t have him front a movie now.”
The move followed Majors being dropped by his management and PR teams and Disney’s specialty arm, Searchlight Pictures, pulling his star vehicle “Magazine Dreams” — a Sundance acquisition — from its schedule.
The jolt to the Marvel machine comes at a time when the Mouse House, its CEO Bob Iger, and its money-making franchise could use some good news.
The MCU, which started in 2008 with the first “Iron Man,” enjoyed over a decade of success. Its 33 films have brought in about $30 billion at the global box office, with “Avengers: Endgame,” its top performer, grossing $2.8 billion.
Now that good luck streak is starting to waver.
Even with a worldwide gross of $476 million, “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,” panned by critics, was considered a box office disappointment. Then this month, “The Marvels” — which cost at least $220 million to make — ended its box office run with $205 million globally, the lowest-ever gross for an MCU movie. It’s the only film in the franchise not to cross the $100 million mark domestically.
While the mighty Marvel hasn’t exactly fallen, it is starting to stumble. Iger has also acknowledged the brand’s struggles.
“We got to the point where if a film didn’t do a billion dollars in global box office, we were disappointed,” Iger expanded at last month’s DealBook Summit. “That’s an unbelievably high standard, and I think we have to get more realistic.”
He partly blames the company’s attention to quantity over quality. This year alone, Marvel has released three movies and three Disney+ series.
“Quantity can be actually a negative when it comes to quality, and I think that’s exactly what happened. We lost some focus,” he admitted on Disney’s fourth-quarter earnings call.
The next phase of the MCU — the one centered on Majors — was planned before the franchise entered shaky ground.
With Majors out and Iger in, now could be the perfect time for Disney to rethink the comic book studio.
There have been murmurings that Marvel is considering bringing back original cast members like Robert Downey Jr. and Scarlett Johansson. It’s a long shot — and would be very expensive for a studio notorious for hiring actors on the cheap — but the move would lend a star quality to the franchise that Majors lacked.
“He wasn’t around for that long in the mainstream; for many audiences, he was still a rising star,” the producer who spoke anonymously said.
Other Marvel properties could also benefit from more attention if the Avengers are put on the back burner.
Thanks to its 2019 Fox acquisition, Disney now has the rights to the X-Men and the Fantastic Four. Fan favorite Hugh Jackman, who played Wolverine in the former series, will return to the big screen next year in “Deadpool 3,” which will continue the beloved Ryan Reynolds-led franchise.
If there’s any silver lining for Disney and Marvel, it’s in that seemingly endless roster of characters. The MCU didn’t make Disney billions, and Iger, the toast of Hollywood, was not because of stars but because of the beloved heroes it brought from the page to the screen.
Now, it’s back to the drawing board — or, in this case, the comic books.