Jonathan Majors’ domestic violence trial ends with guilty verdict, no jail time

Actor Jonathan Majors, known for his roles in Creed III, Lovecraft Country, and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, was arrested in 2023 on charges of domestic violence and found guilty in December on charges of assault and harassment. In April 2024, Majors was sentenced in criminal court in Manhattan to a 52-week domestic violence program, The New York Times reported, avoiding jail time.

Shortly after the verdict was announced in December, Marvel Studios dropped Majors from subsequent projects in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. A source close to the studio confirmed to Polygon that there are no plans to work with the actor in the future.

Majors was arrested on charges of strangulation, assault, and harassment in March 2023. Shortly after Majors’ arrest, his lawyer released a statement saying that the actor was innocent and that Majors was actually the “victim of an altercation with a woman he knows.” Majors’ publicist (who is also the husband of his attorney) released text messages from the alleged victim in hopes that they would clear up Majors’ involvement. That defense seemed to backfire; the texts, some said, read like they were written by a victim of abuse.

After these details came to light, several productions and agencies reportedly dropped Majors, including his publicists, multiple advertising campaigns, and upcoming movie projects The Man in My Basement and an untitled Otis Redding biopic. Magazine Dreams, a completed bodybuilding drama starring Majors, was removed from the release schedule of film distributor Searchlight Pictures, which is owned by Disney. Majors also stepped down from the boards of the Gotham Film and Media Institute and the Sidney Poitier Initiative.

Since his arrest, Majors has faced further accusations, most notably in a Rolling Stone story that alleged “extreme abuse” based on dozens of interviews with sources who wished to remain anonymous. Some of these allegations stretched back to Majors’ time as a student at Yale.

While Marvel remained in business with Majors through the autumn release of Loki season 2 and his trial late in the year, the studio severed ties with him only hours after the verdict was issued in mid-December. The actor was deeply connected to the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s current slate of films. He appeared in the first season of Loki as an adversary named He Who Remains, then played Kang the Conqueror, an alternate-universe version of the same character, in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. That movie’s post-credits scenes set up Kang as a Thanos-sized threat, revealing thousands of time-traveling Kangs and Kang variants.

Kang is an villain integral to the MCU’s current story arc, which was designed to culminate with 2026’s Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and 2027’s Avengers: Secret Wars, in which the character would likely help reset the MCU for a brighter future. Marvel has reportedly considered pivoting away from Kang as the MCU’s primary threat for a more popular villain, Doctor Doom.

Update (Dec. 18, 4 p.m.): This story has been updated to reflect Majors’ guilty verdict and pending sentence.

Update (Dec. 18, 5 p.m.): This story has been updated with the news that Marvel has cut ties with Majors after the verdict.

Update (April 8, 2024): This story has been updated with Majors’ sentencing from his criminal trial.