According to Joanna Robinson, author of “MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios,” Jonathan Majors’ Kang was never meant to play such a pivotal role in the franchise’s future, but his work impressed studio execs so much they insisted the character play a more prominent role in the Multiverse Saga. “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,'” she said on The Ringer’s podcast “The Big Picture.” “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.'”
Considering the next Avengers movie once had the subtitle “The Kang Dynasty,” it’s clear Marvel put a lot of eggs in the Jonathan Majors basket. In a “Quantumania” mid-credits scene, there’s an arena full of Kang variants Marvel could have been looking to explore. If Majors was meant to be as much of a lynchpin of the Multiverse Saga as reports have suggested, the studio will have trouble moving forward until they find someone to fill his shoes. However, according to Robinson, that may be a tall task. “I would argue [Marvel Studios has] never hung so much of a franchise on one actor as they tried to hang it on Jonathan Majors,” she said. But if this latest rumor is true, Disney is wasting little time looking for a less problematic substitute.
