Marvel Studios has dropped Jonathan Majors from upcoming projects after the Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania, Loki and Creed III star was found guilty of two counts of assault and harassment and acquitted of two others in the criminal trial involving former girlfriend Grace Jabbari.
A Manhattan jury of six returned its verdict on Monday after the prosecution and defence rested their cases last Thursday.
Majors, 34, was found guilty of one count of reckless assault in the third degree, and one count of harassment. He was acquitted on two counts of intentional assault in the third degree and aggravated harassment in the second degree.
The actor will be sentenced on February 6, 2024. He faces up to one year in prison.
Shortly after the verdict Marvel Studios confirmed to Screen they had fired the actor, who had been lined up to figure prominently in upcoming tentpoles and series after first appearing as Kang The Conqueror in the 2021 series Loki and returning in February release Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania.
He had been set to star in Avengers: The Kang Dynasty, which is currently scheduled for a 2026 release, and Avengers: Secret Wars, earmarked for release in 2027.
According to reports Majors, who had denied all the charges, sat impassively as the verdict was read out at the end of a rapid two-week trial in which the actor did not testify in his own defence.
The prosecution had argued that an altercation took place in the back of a car in New York in March after Jabbari spotted a text from another woman on Majors’ phone. They said the actor gripped her hand and twisted her arm behind her back in an attempt to take back the phone, before landing a blow to her head.
Some hours later Majors called 911 on March 25 when he said he found Jabbari unconscious on the floor of the home they shared. She was taken to hospital with cuts to the back of her ear and a fractured finger, and was later discharged.
Majors’ legal team argued that Jabbari, a British dancer and movement coach, had made claims in an act of revenge after Majors had ended the relationship. They claimed that after the row in the car, Jabbari left the vehicle and went to party with strangers at a nightclub before returning home.
Where this leaves Majors’ career and the immediate future of the two upcoming Marvel Studios tentpoles remains to be seen. It was unclear at time of writing whether Marvel Studios will recast the character of Kang, write it out of the scripts, or reconfigure the projects more extensively,
It is the latest setback for the studio, which has endured an uncharacteristically tough year at the box office after Quantumania earned $476m worldwide and recent release The Marvels flopped, with a little over $00m at the global box office since it opened six weeks ago. The sole strong performer for the studio has been spring release Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol.3 on more than $845m.
In January Majors wowed critics in Sundance as a troubled bodybuilder in the acquisition title Magazine Dreams. Searchlight Pictures acquired worldwide rights to the film and scheduled an awards corridor release for December, only to pull the drama from the release schedule in October as Majors’ legal troubles mounted.
His credits include TV show Lovecraft Country, and The Last Black Man In San Francisco.
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