Murphy's Multiverse

Tag: Jonathan Majors

  • RUMOR: Marvel Studios “Likely Moving Away” from Original Kang Storyline

    RUMOR: Marvel Studios “Likely Moving Away” from Original Kang Storyline

    There’s been much debate online over the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Many have already called it the end of an era after their first film in a while had a lower opening than even their 2008 release, but that doesn’t mean the production company is just going to sit around. The biggest challenge was that Jonathan Majors‘ Kang the Conqueror was going to be the main focus of the Multiverse Saga but as it turns out, they may be heading in a new direction.

    Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania writer Jeff Loveness is seemingly no longer involved with the first Avengers film, Avengers: The Kang Dynasty. A podcast episode of The Ringer’s House of R features writer Joanna Robinson who made the recent MCU book exploring the inner makings that made the studio what it is today. In it, she seemingly hints that Marvel Studios might be moving away from its original plans.

    As this hasn’t been officially confirmed, it’s something we should take with a grain of salt but Loki definitely kept it open how they decide to move forward. They still have many options in how they tackle the entire storyline moving forward and there’s also a chance that they simply retitle the first Avengers film, or perhaps just jump straight into Secret Wars‘ storyline. They could turn whatever happened to the multiverse into a mystery film as these characters try to unravel what happened to their reality.

    Source: Spotify

  • Jonathan Majors Heavily Involved in Shaping ‘Avengers: The Kang Dynasty’

    Jonathan Majors Heavily Involved in Shaping ‘Avengers: The Kang Dynasty’

    In a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Quantumania writer Jeff Loveness got a chance to reflect on his work on the latest Ant-Man and the Wasp film. Yet, it also gave him an opportunity to tease the future of the franchise, as he’s still busy working on the script for Avengers: The Kang Dynasty.

    He does jokingly highlight that he’s late on his script but also teases that he’s actively working on it with confirmed director Destin Daniel Cretton, who worked on the Shang-Chi film not too long ago and has two Disney+ series on the horizon. But, he also reveals that he’s actively also having “conversations with Jonathan [Majors] about where he wants to take the character.”

    It’s hard to even say. I think I’m in the jet-lag stage of a press tour, but we’re working on it. Destin [Daniel Cretton] is incredible. I’ve had conversations with Jonathan [Majors] about where he wants to take the character, so it’s still very early days. We’ve got like 40 more movies to go before I get there, but we’ve certainly got a plan. We’re all very excited for the story that we’re laying down, so now it’s just on me and my ADHD and my procrastination and all that. So, hopefully, Kevin doesn’t read this. If he is, hey, Kevin. I’m doing great. The pages are just flowing, man. (Laughs.) It’ll be there next week.

    Jeff Loveness

    As much as we discuss the problems with how CG artists are treated by the industry, which includes Marvel Studios’ strong hold over it, they are very actor friendly. Majors getting to shape the character the is playing definitely highlights just how passionate he is about playing him and adds that little extra confidence that we’re about to set on a wild ride now that Phase 5 is truly getting started.

    Source: The Hollywood Reporter

  • ‘Quantumania’ Writer’s Kang the Conqueror is Inspired by Napoleon

    ‘Quantumania’ Writer’s Kang the Conqueror is Inspired by Napoleon

    Jeff Loveness had the challenge of truly introducing audiences to the main big bad of Marvel Studios’ Multiverse Saga. While we did get a glimpse of what Jonathan Majors has to offer in the season finale of Loki, we’re only now truly entering the age of Kang. So, the writer had quite the unique challenge ahead of himself to not only avoid clichés but also humanize a character that is bigger than one timeline.

    In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Loveness revealed that he wanted to avoid repeating the time travel elements that were already explored in Avengers: Endgame by giving us a very different kind of villain. Instead of one just on the edge of success, we meet one that has lost everything he had.

    With Kang, the danger was falling into another derivative time-travel multiverse villain. Endgame just did a time-travel plot in their movie, and there’s been plenty of time-traveling multiverse guys. And so I thought it would be interesting to approach the character first before we get to the more grandiose sci-fi elements of him. Peyton and I stumbled across the idea of Napoleon in exile, where he’s cut off from most of his time powers. We catch him at the end of a story that we just don’t know about yet. Guys like Alexander the Great or Julius Caesar are defined just as much by their defeats as they are their victories, and so I thought it would be humanizing to show a Kang who’s just been defeated. He’s like a Julius Caesar who was just assassinated by fifty other Julius Caesars and sent away. Or he’s like Alexander who has just been turned back at India and has lost the worlds that he conquered.

    Jeff Loveness

    The comparison to Julius Caesar and Alexander the Great is also quite fitting given the version of the character we meet in this film. He’s lost everything and is dedicated to retrieving it at any cost possible. It definitely gives him an edge, as he tries to stay true to his iconic name and highlights just how dangerous he’ll truly be the moment we enter his cage.

    Heathcliff from Wuthering Heights was an example I tried to use. I wanted more of a tortured anti-hero. I was a big X-Men guy growing up, and there’s no fictional character I love more than Chris Claremont’s Magneto. He wrote that character for like 40 years and put him through so many seasons of his life. And so just to write this Kang the Conqueror as a lion during winter felt like a really interesting place to begin with him. We can get his ethos and his passion, and then, by the time we see him or another variant of him again, we’ll have more room to play with him because we’ll know his vibe.

    Jeff Loveness

    It’s definitely an interesting approach and also highlights just how varied these characters can be. With a multiversal storyline, Kang right is the most diverse version of the main villain we’ll get in the MCU moving forward, and it’ll be interesting to see what other versions we may see.

    Source: The Hollywood Reporter

  • RUMOR: Jonathan Majors’ Kang May Return Sooner Than Later

    RUMOR: Jonathan Majors’ Kang May Return Sooner Than Later

    Jonathan Majors finally got to play Kang the Conqueror in the recently released Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. While we did get a brief glimpse of one of his Variants during the first season of Loki, the first season even ended with a glimpse at the big bad himself as the new leader of the Time Variance Authority. So, we all assumed he’d likely have a role in the second season, but it was never officially confirmed.

    With Quantumania‘s release and the much-discussed post-credit sequences, the Marvel rumor mill has once again picked up steam as Cosmic Circus has hinted that Kang will have a larger role in the upcoming second season. While he only made a brief appearance in last season’s finale, it seems we can expect him to appear in at least three episodes. If they are still sticking to their six-episode format for dramas, he’ll have a significant role in the series.

    They believe the reasoning is that we’ll see a few Kang variants in the season, as it’ll focus on Loki and Mobius seeking out the different versions and how they influenced the timeline. The Sacred Timeline is no longer and with the multiverse continuing to stretch out into infinity, who knows what they might find. It’s definitely sounding like Marvel is making good use of the concept and giving Jonathan Majors many chances to give us a unique take on this character every time we see him.

    Source: Cosmic Circus via The Direct

  • Jonathan Majors in Talks to Play Dennis Rodman in Lionsgate’s Upcoming NBA Film

    Jonathan Majors in Talks to Play Dennis Rodman in Lionsgate’s Upcoming NBA Film

    Lionsgate is setting its eyes on telling the story of Dennis Rodman’s 48 hours in Vegas during the 1998 NBA Finals. They were actively looking for someone to take on the role and they finally have found their star. It seems Jonathan Majors, the upcoming star of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, is currently in negotiations for the project.

    It was last August that Lionsgate won the debate for the spec with Phil Lord, Chris Miller, and Aditya Sood set as producers for the project. Rodman is also set as an executive producer alongside Ari Lubet and Will Alegra. Jordan VanDina has written the screenplay for the upcoming adaptation but there’s seemingly no director attached yet.

    It seems that the story has received momentum after Michael Jordan‘s documentary The Last Dance, as Rodman supposedly went on a “madcap adventure” during the 1998 NBA Finals, which the film will explore as well as the budding friendship with his GM assistant. VanDina wrote the script during the pandemic and it seems Lionsgate was a fan from the first time they read it.

    Source: Deadline