Majors had already appeared in “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” and the first two seasons of “Loki.” He was to star in “Avengers: The Kang Dynasty,” due out May 2026.
NEW YORK (AP) — Marvel had more riding on Jonathan Majors than perhaps any other actor. Now it’s parting ways with him, and throwing years of plans for its cinematic universe in disarray.
Marvel Studios and the Walt Disney Co.
For Marvel, Majors’ departure adds to a series of recent setbacks. Though its box-office success — nearly $30 billion worldwide from 33 films — is unsurpassed in movie history, the superhero factory has recently seen some atypical struggles. “The Marvels,” released in November, has been the MCU’s worst performer in theaters, with $204 million in worldwide ticket sales.
Majors also recently starred as a troubled amateur bodybuilder in “Magazine Dreams,” which made an acclaimed debut at the Sundance Film Festival in January and was acquired by the Disney-owned indie distributor Searchlight Pictures. Following its premiere, an Oscar nomination for Majors was widely predicted.
“Magazine Dreams” had been dated to open in theaters in Dec. 8. But ahead of Majors’ trial, Searchlight removed the film from its release calendar. Instead, on Dec. 8 text messages from Majors were read in the fifth day of the trial. In one, Majors begged Jabbari not to seek medical attention for a head injury sustained in 2022, warning she had “no perspective of what could happen” if the truth got out.
In late February as “Creed III,” starring Majors alongside Michael B. Jordan, was being released, Majors spoke in an interview with The Associated Press in the neighborhood of Chelsea, just a few blocks away from where his fight with Jabbari would weeks later spill out onto New York streets.
Majors then sounded acutely aware that his rapid new fame carried the risk of a downfall.
“Though I’ve not seen the boogeyman, I know it’s out there,” Majors said. “And I’ve been around to know it’s comin’. I won’t go down my rabbit hole of death, but it’s comin’. But you outrun it. You just stay out of the frame. I’ll stay out of the frame.”
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