The Accusations Against Jonathan Majors, Explained

Last month, Jonathan Majors—who has enjoyed a meteoric rise to stardom for his work in Lovecraft Country, Creed III, and the Marvel Cinematic Universe—was arrested in New York for allegedly strangling, assaulting, and harassing a woman. While the most important factor in this situation is the woman’s health and well-being, it’s also reasonable to wonder what will happen to Majors. Here’s what we know about the situation.

What did Jonathan Majors do?

On March 26, Majors was arrested after a 911 call reporting a domestic dispute with a 30-year-old woman whose identity hasn’t been made public. In a statement to the Associated Press, the New York Police Department said, “The victim informed police she was assaulted. Officers placed the 33-year-old male into custody without incident. The victim sustained minor injuries to her head and neck and was removed to an area hospital in stable condition.”

Is Jonathan Majors guilty?

It’s important to note that Majors hasn’t been tried or convicted yet, and so far his lawyers have maintained his innocence. One lawyer, Priya Chaudhry, told NPR that the woman had retracted her accusations. Chaudhry gave NPR screenshots of a series texts in which the woman supposedly said that Majors hadn’t attacked her, but according to NPR, there’s no way to verify that the texts are authentic.

Furthermore, as our Rachel Ulatowski points out, the texts don’t prove anything even if they’re real. “Self-blame is very common in domestic abuse cases,” Ulatowski writes. “This is because abusers rarely take responsibility for their actions and will often try to make the victim think they’re the ones in the wrong and, unfortunately, many believe them.”

Will Marvel recast Kang the Conqueror?

In light of Majors’ arrest, his management team at Entertainment 360 and his PR team at The Lede Company both severed ties with him in mid-April. That doesn’t bode well for his career.

There have been rumors that Marvel is looking to recast Kang the Conqueror, a role that Majors is expected to play at least through 2025, when Avengers: The Kang Dynasty is slated to come out. However, none of those rumors have been substantiated, and Marvel has been silent on the question of a recast.

Furthermore, Majors’ next project in the MCU, Loki season 2, has already been filmed, with one sequence already having debuted as a post-credit scene in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. Given Loki season 2’s expected release date of August or September 2023, it seems likely that Majors will still appear in that series. However, nothing is certain.

(featured image: Alberto E. Rodriguez/WireImage)

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