The future of the MCU is completely up in the air now

Marvel Studios has dropped Jonathan Majors after the Kang actor was found guilty of reckless assault and harassment – so what next for the MCU?

Plucked from the pages of Marvel comics as the big bad to succeed Thanos in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Kang the Conqueror – as portrayed by Majors – has so far appeared in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and two seasons of Disney+ series Loki. But now that the rising star is firmly out of the picture, having been convicted of reckless assault in the third degree and harassment, the future of the MCU is up in the air.

Kang was originally the pillar around which Marvel was building the next few phases of its cinematic storyline, pulling together strands that would have culminated in 2026’s Avengers: The Kang Dynasty. According to THR, that movie is still being scripted by Loki creator Michael Waldron, who was brought on board in November, and is now being referred to internally as only ‘Avengers 5’.

That suggests Marvel may have one eye on refocusing the path of its current story arc, moving away from Kang and instead turning to another villain. And there are plenty of big names left to choose from, especially with the Fantastic 4 and X-Men both now under the Marvel umbrella following Disney’s acquisition of Fox, such as Dr. Doom and Galactus – both of whom pose enough of a threat to fill Kang’s shoes.

But the studio is no stranger to recasting roles, either. Terrence Howard and Edward Norton were replaced in their roles as War Machine and Hulk over financial and creative disputes respectively, while Harrison Ford has replaced the late William Hurt as Thunderbolt Ross in the next Captain America movie. But recasting Majors would be the first time Marvel has swapped out an actor as a result of legal ramifications.

Given Kang’s entire ethos revolves around his very many variants scattered across the multiverse, writing around his recasting would be relatively easy (if the studio acknowledged it at all in-universe). We’d all just have to collectively agree to forget the post-credits scene of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, which showed us countless variants all portrayed by Majors.

Still, if Disney did choose to just pivot entirely, the final scenes of Loki’s second season would arguably put a neat enough bow on the character anyway (no spoilers, but if you know, you know). So either of those paths forward would be relatively straightforward: Kevin Feige and the gang just need to pick one.

Wherever the MCU goes from here, it’s obviously going to have knock-on effects for the LEGO Marvel line-up, which pulls almost exclusively from the silver screen (beyond Spider-Man). The Infinity Saga range has helped to fill gaps for a while, and will likely do so again in 2024 – Deadpool 3 is the sole MCU entry next year – so that may offer one solution if Majors’ firing causes other projects to be retooled and delayed.

Otherwise, this turn of events could well open the door to a greater exploration of comic-based material from the LEGO Marvel theme. But we might just be dreaming out loud there.

All images: Marvel

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