It’s been a difficult year for Marvel Studios in 2023, and a “Marvel In Crisis” is about to take hold (you just watch). You had the big underwhelming box-office gross on “Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania,” and “Secret Invasion” savaged by critics (it’s the lowest-rated Rotten Tomatoes Marvel property). And that’s not even counting for this fall. You had the Marvel TV Reckoning, which included the scrapping and overhaul of “Daredevil: Born Again,” and in October, you had the release of the MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios, a new book that expanded on Marvel’s TV problems and struggles post-‘Endgame.’ Now, a deeper blow is hitting with a big Variety feature called, “Crisis At Marvel,” that outlines a recent September retreat for the studio that reveals many issues troubling the studio at the moment (beyond the fact that the upcoming “The Marvels” looks like it will be the studio’s second disappointment of 2023).
The biggest issue right now, it would appear, is the question about what to do with Jonathan Majors. The actor is knee-deep in legal issues, stemming from an arrest on charges of domestic violence. Typically, if this happened to a Marvel actor, they would recast or kill the character off and move on. Well, that’s not so easy to do with Majors, as the actor is the face of the next several years of Marvel stories as Kang the Conqueror, the big bad of the Multiverse Saga. Not only that, he’s already appeared in various MCU projects (having significant roles in “Loki” and “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania”), so the idea of recasting or forgetting Kang exists entirely seems a bit less likely.
According to the Variety report, this is the problem Marvel Studios is trying to navigate currently, and one of the solutions discussed is the idea of switching gears and focusing on Dr. Doom as the big bad of the Multiverse Saga. This would sideline Kang and relegate the character to earlier appearances only. It’s unclear how that would affect “Avengers: The Kang Dynasty,” which is the next major team-up film for Marvel Studios. But it would clear the way for a new actor to come in and hopefully steer the ship for the next few years.
But even if they don’t pivot away from Kang, the report claims that there is the option still on the table of recasting the character of Kang, replacing Majors with another (hopefully, less controversial) actor. Considering we’re talking about the multiverse and there are various versions of Kang floating around, this isn’t a terrible idea. Plus, there is precedent in Marvel Studios’ history for replacing problematic actors (just look at what happened to Terrance Howard and Edward Norton). Still, considering how much Majors has been plastered over the MCU in the last year or so, it wouldn’t be the most elegant solution.
Of course, even if they don’t recast or pivot away from Kang, there’s always the option of sticking with Majors. But as the weeks and months pass by with no end of the legal issues in sight, that appears to be less and less likely.
Regardess, Marvel Studios has a tricky situation and no clear answer. We’ll just have to wait and see what happens.
