Marvel Studios is gearing up for major changes due to Jonathan Majors’ legal issues. The upcoming Avengers movie, originally titled Avengers: The Kang Dynasty, will be rebranded after the actor faced legal troubles in December 2023, due to which he was removed from the Studios. Earlier, the fate of Kang in the Marvel Cinematic Universe was uncertain, leaving fans speculating whether the character would be recast or eliminated. The Hollywood Reporter reveals that the studio is currently considering options to minimise the character’s presence or entirely remove Kang following the underperformance of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania at the box office. Majors previously appeared in the Loki series as the variant He Who Remains and it appears that the show was his last appearance.
Marvel were quick to cut ties with Majors for the upcoming movies soon after he was found guilty, leading to a rewriting of the scripts. The first of the new Avengers movies, slated for a 2026 release, will undergo a title change to remove the character’s name. Sources suggest that even before Majors’ legal trouble, the studio was already taking steps to diminish the character’s presence after Quantumania failed to attract the audience and collected just $476 million (approximately Rs 39 crore) at the box office.
According to Variety, in September last year, a gathering of Marvel creatives, led by studio chief Kevin Feige, took place in Palm Springs. The Marvel team, going through a rough phase due to certain movies and TV shows, as well as a legal scandal involving Majors, who was set to lead the next phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, had big discussions about backup plans. One of the considerations involved replacing Kang with Doctor Doom.
In the current year, MCU fans can look forward to the release of one highly anticipated film, Deadpool & Wolverine featuring Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman. The superhero film is scheduled to hit theatres on July 26 as part of Phase 5. Beyond that, Marvel Studios has an impressive lineup of major films in the following years, which includes Captain America: New World Order, Avengers: Secret Wars, untitled Avengers movie, Blade, Thunderbolts, and a WandaVision spinoff series titled Agatha: Darkhold Diaries, featuring Kathryn Hahn.
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