Marvel Reportedly Made Huge Changes to MCU Future Due to Jonathan Majors' Kang Performance in Loki Season 2
Kang is poised to be a major threat to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but that may not have always been the case. According to Joanna Robinson, the author of the upcoming book MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios, she was told by studio insiders that Kang was never intended to be the center of the MCU, but plans shifted following his performance in Loki. Robinson made the comments during an appearance on The Ringer's The Big Picture podcast (via Collider), explaining how it was Jonathan Major's performance as He Who Remains in Loki as well as his performance in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania that prompted a retooling of plans for the next phase of the MCU.
"I was told by someone who works for Marvel, it was not the plan to make Kang the center of everything until they saw the dailies from Quantumania and after his performance in Loki, which was so strong they were like, 'This is it. This is our way forward. We've lost our varsity hero team, but let's set up around this guy Kang and this performer that so many people are reacting to.'
Robinson also said that it's because Marvel retooled their plans for Phase 6 to center around Majors' Kang that the actor's legal issues have put Marvel Studios in a complicated position. Majors was arrested in March on domestic violence charges related to an alleged domestic dispute. The actor is currently next set to appear in court on June 13th.
"We know this is a huge problem for them that they are facing and grappling with right now. And what's unprecedented in this for Marvel is, I would argue they have never hung so much of a franchise on one actor as they tried to hang it on Jonathan Majors after his Loki performance and his Ant-Man: Quantumania performance," Robinson said. "I would argue more than Downey as Iron Man, more than Brolin as Thanos, that hanging everything on this guy is then going to pop up in all of their properties leading up to something called The Kang Dynasty has put them in a very unusual position. They don't usually hang this much on one person in the way that they did here. And that has but hem in the bind. We do not know what they are going to do. I've heard conflicting stories that they are going to replace him, they're not even considering replacing him, etc. etc. But it's just one more thing."
Currently, Majors is set to appear in the second season of Loki, which will debut on Disney+ beginning October 6th while the first season can be streamed on the service now. If you haven't checked out Disney+ yet and you want to give it a go, you can do that here.