The MCU finally cut ties with Jonathan Majors in December, after months of negative press thanks to the convicted actor’s casting as Kang, but if you thought Marvel was going to replace him at top speed you were mistaken.
Initially, once Marvel cut ties with Majors, it was widely assumed that Kang would be retired along with the man who’d brought him to life thus far into the MCU. However, then rumors started swirling that the plan was actually to recast the Conqueror. One reported contender who gained favor with the fandom was Colman Domingo, a hiring that would certainly be a smart one in terms of continuity, let alone for Domingo’s talent.
And yet, despite the urgency you might expect there to be around finding a new big bad for the Multiverse Saga, word has it that Marvel is actually placing its hunt for the next Kang on the back-burner. According to Variety’s Justin Kroll, we shouldn’t count on getting any news on this front for a long while yet as it’s simply not something that Marvel is sinking its energy into as 2024 kicks off.
“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 warned. “There will be plenty of Marvel breaks in coming weeks on various fronts but don’t hold your breath on that one.”
Kroll went on to suggest that other announcements are set to drop before the Kang conundrum will be solved: “This isn’t dismissing any rumor this week about potential contenders for the role,” Kroll 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.”
Can we expect a Fantastic Four casting announcement before the new Kang?
Kroll’s comments about Marvel working on other announcements is only adding flames to the theories that we’re getting some Fantastic Four casting news incoming ASAP. In the wake of many recent MCU projects underperforming, and the Jonathan Majors drama hanging over the franchise for so long, the 2025 reboot of Marvel’s First Family is one of the purest upcoming projects in terms of excitement and anticipation, so it would make sense in many ways for the studio to hype us up for that first before coming back to the elephant in the room of a Kang recast.
Of course, the good will Marvel will be hoping to get from this casting news all depends on if they’ve definitely found the right people for the job, but with fans generally agreeing that reported contenders Pedro Pascal and Vanessa Kirby are great choices things are looking good. And if it turns out that Kang has been axed and Doctor Doom is the new big bad then that might actually be even more thrilling. Marvel, the ball is in your court.
