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Jonathan Majors has responded to the news that Robert Downey Jr will play Marvel’s next big supervillain, Doctor Doom.
Majors was poised to follow in the footsteps of Josh Brolin’s Thanos, playing Kang the Conquerer in the forthcoming fifth Avengers film, titled Avengers: The Kang Dynasty.
However, that all changed last year when Majors was arrested and charged with assaulting his ex-girlfriend Grace Jabbari.
In December, Majors was found guilty of one count of harassment and assault. He was dropped by Marvel on the same day.
On Saturday (July 27), Iron Man star Downey Jr surprised crowds at Comic-Con in San Diego as he was dramatically unveiled as Doctor Doom during a Marvel panel.
“Yeah, heartbroken. Of course,” Majors told TMZ of his reaction to the new casting after a reporter approached him outside a cafe.
“I love Kang. Doctor Doom is wicked, though,” he said.
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.”
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While he avoided jail time, Majors was sentenced to a one-year, in-person batterer intervention program in Los Angeles, California, mandated to continue with therapy and pay a $250 surcharge.
The Manhattan Criminal Court judge also issued a protective order for Jabbari.
During the trial, jurors heard how Majors pulled Jabbari’s finger, twisted her arm, hit her and pushed her in a way that caused her to fall onto the pavement. Surveillance footage showed Majors shoving Jabbari into a vehicle before pulling her back out of the car and dragging her onto the sidewalk.
Majors was arrested on the night of the incident after officers responded to a 911 call to his Chelsea penthouse apartment.
After the actor was found guilty of two misdemeanors, Majors was immediately dropped by Marvel Studios. He had previously played Kang the Conquerer in the Disney+ series Loki as well as the 2023 film Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.
Majors, who was on a stratospheric trajectory before the conviction, was also dropped from various other projects, including a brand deal with Italian fashion house Valentino, advertisements for Major League Baseball team the Texas Rangers and the US Army, and the lead role in The Man in My Basement, an adaptation of the Walter Mosley novel.
Meanwhile, Downey Jr first appeared in the MCU as Iron Man in 2008. He reprised the role in 10 Marvel films across the next 11 years before exiting the franchise in 2019 following Avengers: Endgame.
The new film, Avengers: Doomsday, which does not yet have a release date, will be directed by Joe and Anthony Russo in their own return to Marvel.
“When we directed Avengers: Endgame, Joe and I truly believed that it was the end of the road for us in the Marvel Cinematic Universe,” Russo told fans at the event.
“In the time since, through a very special story, Joe and I have come to potentially see a road forward with you.”
