William Hurt, the actor who played General Thunderbolt Ross in the MCU (and who passed away in 2022), was credibly accused of violent assault by Marlee Matlin and Donna Kaz, both of whom detailed their experiences in memoirs released before the #MeToo movement. Shockingly (and unfortunately), this is a situation that Marvel Studios has faced before. That Majors is a well-liked actor only makes the victim’s process that much harder, and the fact that his spokesperson has already said that the claims were recanted isn’t necessarily proof that the violence never happened. This problem is exacerbated by the involvement of a famous celebrity, someone who has the resources and face-forward screen presence to convince the public of whatever image they want. While the reality of false accusations does exist (and it’s important to note the history of Black men facing false allegations in particular), they are still too statistically unlikely to be the default assumption when claims of abuse are made. Many recent trials have exposed the difficult reality of going public with domestic violence claims, as plenty of women have faced online and in-person harassment for simply speaking out against the violence that they experienced. While the first instinct of many has been to approach the claims with skepticism, it’s important to remember the sheer overwhelming odds facing women who come forward with abuse claims. There’s still time to recast Jonathan Majors in the MCU. Jonathan Majors played Kang in Loki and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. The next day, a spokesperson for Majors released a statement denying the claims and citing unreleased evidence that would allegedly exonerate him of any wrongdoing. After verifying injuries to her head and neck, the 33-year-old actor was arrested but released from police custody later that same night. On Saturday, March 25, police were called to a residence in Manhattan by a woman later confirmed to be Majors’ girlfriend. Currently, he’s intended to return as the character later this year in Loki Season 2 and again in Avengers: The Kang Dynasty. Majors, who first broke out into mainstream appeal with the back-to-back releases of The Last Black Man in San Francisco and HBO’s Lovecraft Country, debuted as the supervillain Kang the Conqueror earlier this year in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania(after appearing as a different Kang variant in Loki). But it's a position that gives the studio the opportunity to stand forward for victims of domestic assault by doing the right thing: recasting Majors’ role. After the news this weekend that actor Jonathan Majors was arrested in New York on charges of assault, Marvel Studios finds itself in an extremely precarious position moving forward.
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