The Marvel Cinematic Universe is a behemoth force in the entertainment industry, but it’s had a few missteps in recent years. Certain projects like Eternals and Ant-Man 3 failed to perform at the box office, with some fans having concerns over superhero fatigue. A significant controversy surrounding the shared universe is the role of Kang, considering Jonathan Majors’ legal issues. A bombshell report says Disney knows it has a Kang problem, and the WGA strike didn’t help.
While the WGA strike has reached an end after 148 days, it effectively put the TV and film world on pause. It had an effect on countless projects, and that includes the MCU. A report by Variety addresses the situation around Kang, which is complicated given Majors’ assault charge. According to an anonymous “dealmaker” who has seen the Loki Season 2 finale, the studio is in deep with Majors’ villain. And the WGA prevented the studio from writing around him. In that person’s words:
Marvel is truly fucked with the whole Kang angle. And they haven’t had an opportunity to rewrite until very recently [because of the WGA strike]. But I don’t see a path to how they move forward with him.
Whoever they are, they certainly didn’t mince their words. It sounds like Majors will factor heavily into the finale of Loki’s second season. Perhaps this shouldn’t be a surprise, as Kang is expected to be the next Thanos-level threat to the MCU. And it looks like there’s no chance of the upcoming episode being edited around the actor, who continues to focus on his legal battle.
Those of us who have been watching the Marvel movies in order know that finales and final acts of projects often bleed directly into upcoming projects. Avengers: The Kang Dynasty is coming down the line, so perhaps Loki’s Season 2 finale will set up the titular villain’s war against the MCU as a whole. It’s unclear, but Majors seemingly has a big role to play, one that the WGA strike prevented from being altered.
Considering that Kang is already offering connective tissue between various Marvel projects, it’s definitely not ideal that Jonathan Majors would end up embroiled in such a high stakes controversy. Marvel fans have debated who could replace Majors as Kang, but the studio has given no indication of parting ways with the Creed III actor. So only time will tell if he once again returns to the role in an upcoming Marvel movie, or if the studio ends up passing the role to another actor.
Loki airs new episodes on Thursdays, and the next MCU movie hitting theaters is The Marvels on November 10th. In the meantime, check out the 2023 movie release dates to plan your next movie experience.
