After being found guilty last month of assault and harassment of ex-girlfriend Grace Jabbari, Jonathan Majors was fired from his role as Kang in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but that doesn't mean that the powerful villain won't be returning to the screen.
We've been hearing conflicting reports about Marvel's plans for the character, with the latest rumor claiming that the studio does intend to recast The Conqueror (Colman Domingo was recently mentioned as a possible replacement).
We still don't know for certain if this is accurate, but a post from Deadline's Justin Kroll would seem to suggest that, yes, another actor will be stepping into the Kang role... eventually.
"See a lot 'who will play Kang next' and 'here is a top contender for Kang' comments this week, and all I’ll say is this, don’t expect that news anytime soon," Kroll writes. "There will be plenty of Marvel breaks in coming weeks on various fronts but don’t hold your breath on that one."
"This isn’t dismissing any rumor this week about potential contenders for the role," he added. "I don’t have any intel on those being true or not true it’s just letting you know, if I were betting what gets announced first, Kang or the field, I’d put money on the field."
Jeff Sneider also weighed in with the following.
It sounds like we'll be getting word on several other big MCU projects and Marvel's ongoing Phase 5 and 6 plans before any Kang announcement, but that doesn't mean Kevin Feige isn't already considering potential replacements.
As for the next Avengers movie, it's believed that The Kang Dynasty subtitle has been dropped (no surprise there), and the project is being referred to internally as "Avengers 5" for the time being. To what extent the current story will be altered remains to be seen, but Marvel revamping it as "Secret Wars Part 1" is sounding more and more likely.
Sneider has heard that "Secret Wars is basically shaping up to be a giant five-hour movie with a year-long intermission.”
As we know, Loki writer Michael Waldron was hired to pen a new draft, but reports indicate that the events of Loki season 2 are still going to inform the main plotline, which means Kang would remain on as a central character.
Majors will sit down for his first on-screen interview since his conviction this Monday, and you can check out a preview here.