Actor Jonathan Majors is currently filming Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania where he’ll be playing a different version of Kang that he played in Loki. In the Loki finale, He Who Remains suggests his variant, Kang The Conqueror, is worse than him. Majors has hinted he will be playing the variants differently, but he wasn’t entirely certain Marvel would like what he wanted to do at first.
Speaking to The Ringer, Majors has spoken about the weight of that responsibility both in relation to the MCU’s popularity and as a Black actor entering into that kind of space:
“I had watched the films. Love Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man, killed it [but] I was like, ‘I don’t think you want me. I don’t think you want what I’m going to do. Like, I don’t think you want that.’ That was my hesitation. I was like, ‘You got the right Black guy?’”
Jonathan Majors
Speaking specifically about how he was convinced to take the role, Majors mentions how another actor convinced him to do so. While on set filming The Harder They Fall, his co-star and fellow MCU alum Idris Elba urged him to step up to the responsibility of the role and how it could help bring other actors through behind him:
“We were talking about work and the legacy of Black actors and all that stuff. And he said, ‘You can do that.’ What Dwayne Johnson has done to the game, what Idris Elba has done to the game, what Will Smith did to the game. This idea that the Black men can enter into a highly commercial world. [It’s all part of] stretching it and stretching it and making more room for the fellow behind them. [Elba tells me] ‘It’s on you now.’”
Jonathan Majors
It’s exciting to hear about Majors’ excitement for the Marvel role. It’s also fascinating to hear about his understanding of the responsibility in taking on such a role. He won rave reviews for his part in Loki so it will be thrilling to see not only the next take on the variants of Kang but also his growth in importance as an actor for the industry.
Sources: The Ringer
