While the Jonathan Majors situation is yet to be resolved, that type of tricky scenario puts studios in a hard place. For Disney/Marvel Studios, one of the biggest studios out there, they may be left with no choice but to recast the role of Kang the Conquerer. Nothing's confirmed, but new rumors have sprouted regarding a potential replacement type should the role be recast.
On The Hot Mic podcast, hosts John Rocha and Jeff Sneider discussed the Majors situation and the type of actor Marvel may look to cast should Majors be. Sneider specifically name-dropped Damson Idris, saying, “Here's one I wanted to talk about. Did you see who got cast in that Brad Pitt racing movie? Damson Idris. I think he's from Snowfall. And so that's like a big part, right? That is the young, hotshot racer opposite Brad Pitt in this $150-200 million racing movie. That was a big deal that he got that.”
He continued, “And again, even though there hasn't been any movement on the Jonathan Majors front, I've heard that's the kind of actor, who, like, if Jonathan Majors got the boot as Kang, someone like Damson Idris is the type of person that [Marvel] may look at to replace him if that, in fact, happens.”
Damson Idris is indeed an up-and-coming star, as he made a name for himself in the FX series Snowfall and Outside the Wire for Netflix. As noted, he was recently cast in the F1 racing film for Apple Original FIlms opposite Pitt, which is a tall task but an equally big compliment to any actor to get that honor.
Jonathan Majors, on the other hand, had it all but could see it all disappear amidst his controversies. In March, he was arrested on assault, strangulation, and harassment charges which have resulted in the United States Army pulling ads with him in them and could result in studios having to potentially shuffle their films around as well. For example, he was critically acclaimed in the film Magazine Dreams at Sundance, but who knows if Searchlight can still market the film the same come awards season due to this once the film is released officially.
He was also in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania as Kang, the next major villain in the MCU. This controversy puts Marvel in a bind (which is secondary to the safety of the woman, of course) as they now need to see how this plays out and decide if they want to recast or not. It's a shame, as Kang will be a major (no pun intended) part of Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and Avengers: Secret Wars. However, giving Idris that shot would be a huge opportunity and a career-changing one at that.
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