Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige has weighed in on the Kang issue, and why the studio decided to pivot away from the character.
Kang the Conqueror was set to be the next big bad of the Marvel Cinematic Universe in Phase 4-6, following Thanos’ run as a villain during the first three phases.
However, things changed following actor Jonathan Majors’ arrest for physical assault against his ex-girlfriend Grace Jabbari. He was later found guilty of one count of reckless assault in the 3rd degree and a charge of harassment as a violation.
After Majors’ conviction at the end of 2023, he was dropped from several projects, including his future involvement as Kang in the MCU. In 2024, Marvel then announced that Doctor Doom would be the villain of the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday.
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Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Feige has addressed the “real reason” why Kang was replaced in the MCU: “We had started even before what had happened to the actor happened, we had started to realize that Kang wasn’t big enough, wasn’t Thanos, and that there was only one character that could be that, because he was that in the comics for decades and decades.
“Because of the Fox acquisition, we finally had it, and it was Dr. Doom. So we had started talking about Dr. Doom even before we officially pivoted from Kang.
“And in fact, I had started talking with Robert [Downey Jr.] about this audacious idea before Ant-Man 3 even came out. It was a long plan that we had, to take one of our greatest characters and utilize one of our greatest actors.”
If true, it seems a little poor on Marvel’s behalf to have planned out an entire saga with Kang at the centre of it, only to drop the character halfway through.
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After all, the actor featured quite heavily in Loki and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.
He was clearly being set up as the big bad guy for the rest of the Multiverse Saga before the controversy occurred.
There’s also the fact that the next Avengers film was originally going to be called Avengers: The Kang Dynasty, and would presumably feature Majors’ character as the villain.
This really just smells like Marvel and Disney wanting to distance itself from Majors, who was sentenced to 52 weeks of a domestic violence intervention program and probation in April 2024.