Jonathan Majors’ arrest won’t affect Loki this time
Loki is reportedly the first Marvel series that didn’t require additional photography
Aux News Loki
The arrest of and allegations against Jonathan Majors have more or less derailed his once-promising career. Since March, when he was first arrested on domestic violence charges, followed by numerous cases of assault and abuse in subsequent months, he has been dropped by his managers, publicists, the Met Gala, an ad for the Texas Rangers baseball team, and a recruitment campaign for the U.S. Army. However, one company steadfast in keeping Majors on the screen is the Walt Disney Corporation.
Disney and its ever-expanding Marvel Cinematic Universe are in a tough spot. Majors’ Kang the Conquerer is the central villain of the current phase of superhero movies (known among fans as “Phase Flop”), having appeared in Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania and the first season of Loki before his arrest. In a new interview with Variety, Loki executive producer Kevin Wright assures fans Jonathan Majors will return for season two.
Because the upcoming season “is the first Marvel series to never have any additional photography,” Majors’ arrest had no impact on shooting, which wrapped in 2022. “The story that is on screen is the story we set out to make,” Wright says. “We went out there with a very specific idea of what we wanted this to be, and we found a way to tell it in that production period. It’s very much what’s onscreen on Disney+.”
Disney and Marvel have a lot invested in Majors, who, unlike previous baddies Thanos, Ultron, and Jake Gyllenhaal’s Mysterio, isn’t a CGI creation. Even if Marvel could replace his performance digitally or practically with Tig Notaro, the allegations only came to light after the release of Loki season one and Ant-Man. For his part, Wright says there hasn’t even been a discussion about replacing the actor because “it felt hasty to do anything without knowing how all of this plays out,” says Wright. Of course, it is a little wild to not even humor a contingency plan at this point but go off.
Though Jonathan Majors has maintained his innocence, the concern surrounding his celebrity continues. His domestic violence trial has been delayed three times, and it is currently set to begin on October 25, just ahead of the premiere of Loki’s fourth episode. How his trial will affect viewers’ impressions of the season remains to be seen, but most weren’t impressed by this very real video of Majors breaking up a fight.
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Loki executive producer Kevin Wright assures fans Jonathan Majors will return for season two.And that’s a good thing how? It wasn’t bad enough DC stayed in bed with Ezra Miller, now Marvel’s got to get in the act with Jonathan Majors? I would hope somebody high up at Disney would at least have the decency, or failing that sense of self-preservation, to announce Jonathan Majors has, though the miracle of overworked digital artists, been replaced by Denzel Washington or Daniel Kaluuya or Leslie Odom, Jr.
Fuck yeah, another role for Don Cheadle.
‘”Fuck yeah, another role for Don Cheadle.”’No, they should let Terrence Howard have it this time. He NEVER got to be War Machine…
The math doesn’t really add up for that.
(1 x 1 = 2) ∴ Terrance Howard = Kang.
Of course, 1 x 1 does not = 2.
Next time, baby.
RON HOWARD: There was not, in fact, a next time.
I love Terrance Howard but he has his own history of domestic abuse allegations so that wouldn’t exactly address the problem with Majors in that role.
I’ve got $20 on Kang somehow changing his appearance in the post credit of the final episode. We’ll only see him from behind or in silhouette.
Yeah, if they can have a crocodile Loki, then they can have a different looking Kang.
I’m voting for Kodos.
go ahead, throw your vote away
The true tragedy of the ruination of the boater by shitty private schools was that now us normal people have nothing to punch through in frustration.
It really annoys me, but I have no way to express my feelings about it.
…stupid high-tensile modern baseball caps…
he would have to be re-cast with a not sag actor and the scene would have had to have been written by a non-wga writer, right? (unless they’re writing it right now)
Well, a 30-second scene could be thrown together in fairly short order, and we’re 8 weeks out (and SAG’s back to the bargaining table today), so maybe not. I honestly don’t recall when Majors’ got arrested, so it might have been done pre-strike.Or, they just filmed it in Europe with, as you say, non SAG actors.
i think majors was arrested right before the writers strike started, or right after. to your point the whole thing was (luckily) filmed in london. not saying it’s impossible but i think they’re just gonna act like nothing’s wrong and solve that problem later, if they even consider it a problem. they’ve got a sex pest namor to deal with, too.
True, but they can just ignore Namor for the foreseeable future (I doubt they had big plans for him anyway). They’ve already announced “Avengers: Kang Dynasty”, however.
Or it was done during principal photography.
“The High Evolutionary was a Kang variant” feels like the simplest way out of this. They’d better nail down Chukwudi Iwuji’s availability before Gunn casts him as something indispensable in his Superman film though.
Nah, David Oyelowo is right there.
Even if Marvel could replace his performance digitally or practically with Tig Notaro,Gods, I wish. Not necessarily because I have any strong feelings about Jonathan Majors, but rather how adding Tig Notaro to anything makes me happy (the only bright spot of Army of the Dead for instance).
Plus, it would just be goddamn hilarious to have Tig Notaro be the big bad of an entire MCU phase.
Especially if she brought her usual doesn’t-give-a-shit energy to the role. She’s going to take over the universe but she’s not thrilled about it.
She could do a perfect low-energy, matter-of-fact Beyonder for Secret Wars.
She was the bright spot in a dour Star Trek: Discovery.
Now I’ve seen that her name is an anagram of “Giant Root”, I really want her to show up as Queen of the Groots.
Spoilerz: Ain’t Groot
I would pay good money to watch a half hour sitcom with Tig Notaro just hanging out with Groot.
Tig the Conqueror threatens to destroy Earth by scraping a galaxy-sized stool back and forth across its surface.
I cheered so hard upon seeing she’s now in The Morning Show.
(the only bright spot of Army of the Dead for instance).what did you think the reference was?!
She’s also the best part of Star Trek: Discovery.
Since our TV has largely been taken over by shows aimed at toddlers, I was pleasantly surprised when she popped up as a voice on “Young Jedi Adventures”.
ughh to the MAX
Just give Yahya Abdul-Mateen the damn role and call it a day. Someone else can play Wonder Man if that actually ends up getting made.
If we can just sub in other great Black actors (and given the whole multiverse problem, why not?), I’d vote for Jeffrey Wright
He would be great, but my first choice would be LaKeith Stanfield.
Never seen the phrase “phase flop”. You just made that up right? If it is used it isn’t by the fans. “Fans” morelike.
Can you imagine the smug look of satisfaction on their face while typing that phrase out?
Well of course fans wont say that because they are fans. But in the general public, even if I never heard this specific expression, that’s the general impression, nobody cares anymore.
I’m not vouching for the ‘phase flop’ term (never heard it before this article), but there’s definitely an oddly antagonistic subset of fandom that seems to revel in attacking the creators of their favourite shows, often over trivial or even unavoidable slights like a cast member dying or leaving the show. Remember the fury when Dumbledore was recast? What were they supposed to do, stick animatronics inside a mummified Peter O’Toole?
I can see it being called that by people with crypto details in their Twitter profile who spend their time saying how The Marvels is going to be a flop and that Rey ruined Star Wars
Don’t forget the blue checkmark.
Yeah, I call bullshit on that one too.
Same cleverness used for that “Donald Duck” thing Chris Christie tried to use
it’s entirely possible this is something that exists only on tiktok or something…but i doubt it.
What does the MCU and AV Club have in common? Both were better five years ago! At least one has a chance of recovery (Hint, it doesn’t start with A).
I think the best solution to the Jonathan Majors question is to use him as a bargaining chip with the AMPTP to specifically allow the use of only his likeness for AI. The MCU is already preparing us for a multiverse of different Jonathans Majors, so it’ll feel quite normal when they start showing up as background characters in other media, all dressed up in different hats.
unlike previous baddies Thanos, Ultron, and Jake Gyllenhaal’s Mysterio, isn’t a CGI creation You hear that? Screw you Fake Gyllenhaal!
Look at him, being all CGI! Hear hear: Screw you Fake Gyllenhaal!
i mean if you told me that was a still from the ps5 game i wouldn’t dispute it.
What are you talking about, that’s clearly from the PS2 release of PoP: Sands of Time
“known among fans as “Phase Flop”That sounded a lot better in your head, didn’t it?
At least have fun with the spelling …Phase Phlop
Phaze PhloppOk now we’ve got a new character brewin!
*does voice* “Is this a guy?”
Perfect for the inevitable Star Wars crossover
Not to be confused with “Face Flop”, which means you’re having a stroke.
I gained like 20 lbs during the Covid years (but have since lost it) so that was my personal Phloppy Phaze.
“Phase Flop” is when you’re with a woman and- actually, you know what? I’ll tell you when you’re older.
how about “phase dogshit”??
the reason they didn’t shoot any additional stuff is because: there were two strikes ongoing!
Of course, it is a little wild to not even humor a contingency plan at this point but go off.I can pretty well guarantee you that they have a contingency plan. Probably multiple contingency plans. But it really does them no good at all to announce what they might be or even that they exist.
They formed a contingency plan the second he got arrested. Just because some goober producer wasn’t in the conversation doesn’t mean one didn’t happen.
The very idea that Marvel Studios wouldn’t have kept AV Club in the loop at all times about their contingency plans is outrageous!!!!
It’s like they haven’t achieved object permanence. If they haven’t been told of a plan, they must assume one doesn’t exist.
My guess is Feige was given a short list of 10 recasting names within two days and whittled it down to 2-4 within a week.
Then, within a week, he had been given a broad outline for just getting rid of the character and that was updated after Chukwudi Iwuji melted the screen in Guardians 3.
I bet he has separate, possibly overlapping plans for:Prison, longer sentence that would interfere with shooting several moviesPrison, very short token sentenceGuilty without prison, just a fine/community service/sensitivity classSettlementAcquittedDropped charges, never goes to trialDozens more women step forward before any trialAnd 5 or 6 other scenarios.
For his part, Wright says there hasn’t even been a discussion about replacing the actor because “it felt hasty to do anything without knowing how all of this plays out,” says Wright. Of course, it is a little wild to not even humor a contingency plan at this point but go off.Yes, the Producer of Season 2 of Loki has not been let in on it. I’m sure the shift manager at the Toledo McDonald’s is not in executive board meetings at McDonald’s HQ.
My guess is that Feige has all kinds of contingency plans in the hopper, starting with recasting and going all the way up to scrapping Kang as a character altogether and saying Doom and the High Evolutionary were behind it all along.
For all the shit the MCU gets, they’ve been remarkably lucky and/or actively working hard to avoid assholes. Well over 15 years of projects and Majors is the first one to face criminal issues. (That thing against the guy who played Namor hasn’t come up in a while. Where we at with that?)And the non-criminal assholes – Norton and Howard – got shuffled off fairly quickly.
Kang may be the easiest character in history to change actors for. Never seen the big deal about this.
well the ‘big deal’ that people have with it isn’t about how easy it is or isn’t, it’s that they didn’t.
The season was completely filmed before the accusations hit, and they haven’t done anything with him since.
i know.
It’s so interesting to see this comment repeated endlessly
So, we’re never getting Doom in the MCU are we?
Nobody is saying phase flop. Literally nobody. You’re street behind Matt
I’d be very surprised if Disney hasn’t already had a conversation (or more likely several conversations) about replacing Majors.
Changes couldn’t be done to Loki in time (either because of the strike or other factors), so they’re playing it close to the chest for now. Play nice for the promotional rollout, get to re-casting after you can actually write/film shit again.
And likely won’t ever affect it. His abuse charge was dropped after video footage debunked her claims.
No, it wasn’t. Only the strangulation charge was dropped. He still faces misdemeanor assault, aggravated harassment, attempted assault, and harassment. And no information says it was dropped because of a video.
The solution is already built into the Loki / multiverse premise from day one. Have a female version of Kang do some killing and moving on…
“Because the upcoming season “is the first Marvel series to
never have any additional photography,” Majors’ arrest had no impact on
shooting, which wrapped in 2022.”hmmm very intriguing quote here. No reshoots you say? I guess the show is just so good that it didn’t need them? Hmm but shooting wrapped in late 2022 and the assault allegation was in March 2023, which is sort of exactly when reshoots would conceivably happen. But no, I believe them! This show is going to perfect, I’m sure of it!
I know a lot of people have been saying that Kang needs to have his face changed somehow like we meet a new Kang but for real if they replace Majors I am praying that they just won’t acknowledge it and bring in a new dude in the next project. I find studios/writers giving in-universe justifications for recasting to be the most patronizing thing in movies. I’m not an infant, I can grasp the concept of a new dude in the suit without having someone make it explicit.And I know the counterpoint is “But think of the children!” well guess what? If they’re genuinely too young to grasp the concept of an actor switch they… can turn to their parent and ask why they look different and the parent can say “they just look different” and you know, the kid will probably accept that. And if they are old enough to grasp an actor change but have crazy problems with it maybe they need to grow the hell up.