The arrest of Jonathan Majors last weekend, which resulted in his being charged with several assault and harassment misdemeanor charges — despite his lawyer announcing he is “completely innocent and is probably the victim of an altercation with a woman he knows” — is one of the more surprising developments in recent popular culture.
Majors, who recently appeared as the arch-villain Kang in the latest Marvel picture Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, has been progressing steadily towards superstardom for some time, starring as the antagonist in the third Creed film and appearing in a series of ads for the US Army. Those commercials have since been pulled, with a spokesman declaring that the Army was “deeply concerned by the allegations.”
It may be that, as his lawyer confidently attests, Majors is the victim of a misunderstanding in what is believed to be a domestic dispute, and that the charges will be dropped before the actor’s court appearance on May 8. Should this happen, public attention may well turn to a DA over-eager to secure a conviction against a celebrity. As the increasingly doomed Alec Baldwin prosecution is showing, a desire for an impressive scalp should not overrule basic questions of fairness and justice. Yet if the Majors case continues, then it’s another embarrassing headache for Marvel, whose long-held reputation for can’t-miss blockbuster hits may, at last, have been tarnished.
If Majors were simply an actor in a film that had already been released and commercially underperformed — Quantumania is unlikely to break even and will have to hope for profitable revenue from streaming services and the like — then his legal travails might yet be moved on from. However, at a time when Ezra Miller’s eventful off-screen antics could well cause chaos when his superhero film The Flash is released in a couple of months, studios are terrified that their extremely expensive intellectual property is being threatened by the actions of their stars.
Marvel has always shown ruthlessness in recasting troublesome actors — Edward Norton was replaced in the role of the Hulk by Mark Ruffalo, and Terrence Howard departed from Iron Man in favor of the more amenable Don Cheadle. But Majors was being groomed as the new face of the brand who would be front and center for years to come.
For those whose interest in superhero films ended in 2012, when Christopher Nolan concluded his Dark Knight trilogy and a pre-disgrace Joss Whedon brought superheroes and Tom Hiddleston’s villain together in The Avengers, this may seem like irrelevant news. But at a time when the only guaranteed cinematic financial successes have been superhero sequels, the possibility of the golden goose laying distinctly rotten eggs is a terrifying one. It is unfortunate for Majors, whatever the facts of what happened last weekend, that his actions have now become the subject of industry discussion and gossip that bears no relation to what he has been accused of. Yet any actor unfortunate enough to be supporting a multi-billion dollar behemoth on his shoulders is under an unfathomable amount of pressure.
Should the studio now be feeling a sense of panic, then the consequences for the stars of these films — especially those faced with any kind of public controversy — are likely to be difficult. Either way, the behind-the-scenes drama should prove more compelling than any of the special effects-drenched spectacles that audiences are being threatened with in the coming years.
