Colman Domingo has revealed that he spoke to Marvel after he was consistently linked with replacing Jonathan Majors as the villainous Kang.
Majors debuted his role as Kang, who was supposed to be the next major threat in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, in 2023’s Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania having previously had a small role as an adjacent character in the Disney+ series Loki.
However, the actor was dropped by the studio after the star was found guilty of assaulting his former-girlfriend Grace Jabbari. The 35-year-old was charged with one count of third-degree assault and one count of harassment, but acquitted of another count of assault and one aggravated harassment count by a Manhattan jury in December 2023.
This caused Marvel to rename 2026’s Avengers: The Kang Dynasty to Avengers: Doomsday, with Robert Downey Jr making a divisive return to the MCU as Doctor Doom.
Online rumours had linked Domingo with taking over as Kang from Majors but the Sing Sing star has now said that he met with Marvel executives to quash the rumours.
Speaking to Josh Horowitz on the Happy Sad Confused podcast the actor said: “When it was constantly in the press and on places like Twitter, I was like, ‘Wait a minute. Is this true? Am I being talked about for Kang?'”
He added: “I literally called up my team and said, ‘Are you guys having conversations that I have no idea about?’ And they said no. ‘Are you guys being cagey or what?’ They weren’t.”
The 55-year-old continued: “There had been conversations of me coming into Marvel in some way, so we did follow-up with a sit-down meeting with the heads of Marvel. I did do that. We talked openly about the landscape of Marvel and the Kang rumours. I am all about energy. I want to do things that make sense and bring gentle energy. I want a role to be mine, whatever I develop. Something didn’t feel right to me about replacing someone. I want to build something from the ground up that is my own.”
Domingo did stress that there was “never a conversation from my point of view” about playing Kang but there are “still are talks”.
After Downey Jr was confirmed to be playing Doctor Doom, Majors told TMZ he was “heartbroken” and added: “I love Kang. Doctor Doom is wicked, though.”
The TMZ reporter then asked the actor if he was disappointed not to be given the same opportunities as Downey Jr, given that the latter has also faced legal troubles in the past. Downey Jr was arrested in 1996 for possession of heroin, cocaine and an unloaded gun and given three years of probation.
“I think it’s fair that Mr Downey is being and has been greeted with patience and curiosity and love… and allowed to work his art and be creative at that level,” Majors said, adding: “I didn’t really get that.”
Asked if he would return to the MCU as Kang, Majors replied: “Hell yeah! Hell yeah! I love him. I love Kang. If that’s what the fans want, and that’s what Marvel wants then let’s roll. Hell yeah.”
