Jonathan Majors #

Introduction #

Jonathan Majors, one of Hollywood’s fastest-rising stars and the actor Marvel was building its next era around as Kang the Conqueror, saw his career collapse on December 18, 2023. A Manhattan jury found him guilty of one misdemeanor assault charge and one harassment violation stemming from a March 2023 confrontation with his then-girlfriend, British dancer Grace Jabbari. Marvel Studios and the Walt Disney Co. dropped him from all upcoming projects within hours of the verdict.

Background Information #

Born Jonathan Michael Majors on September 7, 1989, in Lompoc, California, Majors spent his early years on a military base and in towns across Texas before earning a Master of Fine Arts from the Yale School of Drama in 2016. He rose to prominence with critically acclaimed performances in The Last Black Man in San Francisco (2019) and Spike Lee’s Da 5 Bloods (2020), earned a Primetime Emmy nomination for the HBO horror series Lovecraft Country (2020), and went on to star in The Harder They Fall (2021), Devotion (2022), and Creed III (2023).

In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, he debuted as He Who Remains in the first season of Loki (2021), played Kang the Conqueror in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023), and returned as the Kang variant Victor Timely in Loki’s second season. He was being set up as the franchise’s post-Thanos villain and slated to star in Avengers: The Kang Dynasty. AP described him at the time as “one of the fastest-rising stars in Hollywood.”

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation #

On March 25, 2023, Majors called 911 after arriving home to find Jabbari unresponsive and was arrested on assault, strangulation, and harassment charges; the NYPD said Jabbari had “sustained minor injuries to her head and neck” in a dispute the prior evening. His spokesperson denied the allegations — Majors “has done nothing wrong … We look forward to clearing his name and clearing this up” — and his attorney claimed Jabbari had provided two written statements recanting them. Majors maintained his innocence throughout, insisting Jabbari was the assailant.

At the trial, which began November 29, 2023, Jabbari testified that Majors hit her in the head with his open hand, twisted her arm behind her back, and squeezed her middle finger until it fractured, leaving her in “excruciating” pain after she took his phone to read a text message from another woman. Majors’ lawyers argued she flew into a jealous rage and spread a “fantasy” to take down the actor, who was only trying to retrieve his phone. Over four days of testimony she described him as controlling and prone to explosive rage, breaking down on the stand as jurors watched footage of him pushing her back into a car.

The trial also surfaced text messages in which Majors begged Jabbari not to seek hospital treatment for an earlier head injury — one warned “it could lead to an investigation even if you do lie and they suspect something” — and audio of him declaring himself a “great man” while questioning whether she could meet the standards of Coretta Scott King or Michelle Obama. The defense cited footage of Majors sprinting away from Jabbari and noted that she later accompanied strangers to a dance club; Majors did not take the stand.

On December 18, 2023, the jury convicted him of one count of reckless assault in the third degree and a harassment violation, while acquitting him of another assault charge and of aggravated harassment. He showed no immediate reaction and declined to comment as he left the courthouse, and his lawyer said he “still has faith in the process and looks forward to fully clearing his name.”

Public Reaction and Consequences #

The fallout was immediate. Marvel and Disney dropped Majors from all upcoming projects that evening, with Marvel confirming to TIME that it would no longer work with him. He had already lost his talent agency (Entertainment 360) and publicity firm (The Lede Company), been cut from The Man in My Basement, removed from U.S. Army recruiting commercials and a Texas Rangers ad campaign, and had his 2023 Met Gala invitation rescinded. Searchlight Pictures also pulled his Sundance-acclaimed Magazine Dreams from its December 2023 release calendar ahead of the trial.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said the trial “illustrated a cycle of psychological and emotional abuse, and escalating patterns of coercion,” and prosecutor Kelli Galaway told jurors this was “not a revenge plot to ruin the defendant’s life or his career” and that “domestic violence is serious.” Majors faced up to a year in jail at a sentencing initially set for February 6, 2024 and postponed to April 8, 2024, where he received 52 weeks of a domestic violence intervention program and probation.

Further allegations followed: Rolling Stone reported a pattern of alleged abuse dating back to Majors’ Yale years, which his attorney denied as hearsay, and in March 2024 Jabbari sued him for defamation, assault, and battery, alleging a “pattern of pervasive domestic abuse that began in 2021 and extended through 2023.” The lawsuit was reportedly settled in November 2024.

Current Status #

Majors completed the 52-week domestic violence intervention program, and Magazine Dreams was ultimately released theatrically in March 2025. He married actress Meagan Good in March 2025 after a November 2024 engagement. His return to acting has moved outside the Hollywood mainstream: he was announced in 2024 to star in the thriller Merciless, signed on for the action film True Threat in May 2025, and in February 2026 to star in the Daily Wire action film Run Hide Fight: Infidels — reported as his first film in three years.

Impact on Their Career/Life #

The conviction ended a meteoric Hollywood trajectory, permanently severing his Marvel ties. Marvel had been setting up Kang as the central antagonist of its Multiverse Saga; after the verdict, Avengers: The Kang Dynasty was reworked into Avengers: Doomsday, with the antagonist changed to Doctor Doom, played by Robert Downey Jr. The studio reportedly approached Colman Domingo about replacing Majors as Kang before he declined.

Even as the verdict defined his downfall, Majors continued to maintain his innocence — his defense cast him as the victim of Jabbari’s “fantasy,” and his lawyer said he looked forward to “fully clearing his name.” The speed of the fallout, from conviction to studio exit within hours, made his case a landmark example of a corporation severing ties with a star the moment a guilty verdict landed — and a reminder of how quickly one conviction could erase a Hollywood ascent.