While promoting his new film, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Jonathan Majors revealed things didn’t necessarily start smoothly with the Marvel execs.
“I hope this doesn’t bite me in the a**, but I walked out of my Marvel general [meeting],” Majors told Vanity Fair in an article published Wednesday (Feb. 15). The “Lovecraft Country” lead noted the incident could have ended his chances of being the powerhouse he is today. “This was a long time ago. I had just gotten out of drama school, and I’m running around town and I’m sitting in the office. I grew up in a very particular way and I don’t want to waste nobody’s time. So I got in there and they’re just busy. And I was like, ‘I’m supposed to be here, right?’ It got long and I went, ‘I’m just going to go. It’s cool. I’ll just go,’” he continued. But it’s a good thing he didn’t leave because his visit paid off.
“I got to the door, but then they said [casting director] Sarah Finn was going to come. We got in the room and we chatted. We were having this great conversation. I think it was three years later that we had the Kang chat. And there’s no trepidation now, especially because of who Kang is. When I said, ‘Yes,’ we got the whole picture, and what is being laid out is cohesive,” he shared. Majors is one of the newest additions to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. He joins Paul Rudd (Scott Lang) as Kang the Conqueror in the action-packed follow-up to the franchise which arrives in theaters today (Feb. 17). A synopsis of the film reveals Lang returns with his trusty accomplice Hope Van Dyne, also known as The Wasp, to explore the Quantum Realm and embark on a colossal adventure.
Kevin Feige, president of Marvel Studios, revealed he saw the 33-year-old actor as the perfect fit after watching him in the 2019 film The Last Black Man in San Francisco. “He’s the highest-testing villain we’ve ever had in any of our friends and families [screenings]. That’s really saying something with a movie like this. Even early on without the effects, Jonathan is his own effect. He was working from the start,” Feige added. Fans agree — one person referred to the project as “the exact start [they were] hoping for in Phase Five. Jonathan Majors is already a top [three] villain in the MCU [and] he is TERRIFYING. I loved the entire dynamic between the Ant-Family. A great start to Phase Five.” Another claimed, “Jonathan Majors was made for this role.”
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