On March 25, Jonathan Majors was arrested in New York for assault and harassment. The police report – which TMZ leaked – showed that his girlfriend told police that they were in the back of a taxi and they fought over his phone, and during the fight, he struck her and strangled her. As it turned out, the assault was probably much more violent than we first believed, and at one point, the victim collapsed and passed out. She was hospitalized, which is where (I believe) that police became involved. Majors’ lawyer put out a statement saying that it was all a misunderstanding from a hysterical, emotionally imbalanced woman, and that they also had a statement from the woman where she recanted. A week later, Majors’ lawyer released that “recantation” – the texts she sent him after he was arrested, in which she sounded terrified of him and which included details which were extremely damaging to Majors. It was insane that his lawyer released them. Well, it looks like Hollywood wants no part of this sh-tshow. His management team is dumping him.
Talent manager Entertainment 360 has dropped Jonathan Majors, several sources tell us. The recent move by Majors’ longtime manager comes three weeks after the Magazine Dreams star was arrested on domestic violence charges in New York City.
Currently starring in Creed III and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Majors’ departure was due to issues surrounding the actor’s personal behavior, we are informed.
Majors’ representation problems don’t stop with Entertainment 360. PR firm The Lede Company also initiated a break with the Avengers actor in the last month. As a more minor element of this, Majors and fashion house Valentino “mutually agreed” that the actor would not be attending this year’s Met Gala as one of its guests.
Majors has already shot the second season of Marvel/Disney+’s Loki, in which he reprises his uber-villain role of Kang the Conqueror, and won’t go before the cameras in Avengers: The Kang Dynasty for quite some time. Deadline hears there’s been zero conversations in the Marvel camp to drop Majors from the MCU.
There’s enough anecdotal evidence to suggest that this March 25 incident was far from the first time, but it doesn’t matter if it was the first or fiftieth – what he did to this poor woman is awful and hopefully there’s enough evidence to actually put him in jail or make him face serious consequences. That could be Marvel’s calculation – why fire him when it’s possible he could go to jail? But yeah, Marvel needs to be more proactive. As for Majors being dumped by his management and his PR – reminds me of what happened to Armie Hammer. Hammer lost his entire team in a matter of weeks.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
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- Jonathan Majors at Creed III film premiere at Cineworld Leicester Square in London, UK, 15 February 2023,Image: 756345895, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: James Shaw / Avalon
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- Jonathan Majors attends Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania – UK Gala Screening at the BFI IMAX in London, England. 16th February 2023. -,Image: 756734170, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: NORESTRICTIONS, Model Release: no, Pictured: Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania – UK Gala Screening, Credit line: JW / Bang Showbiz / Avalon
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- Kang the Conqueror Jonathan Majors arrives at the UK Gala Screening of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania at BFI IMAX Waterloo, London, UK on 16 February 2023.,Image: 756771544, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: Tina Korhonen / Avalon
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- HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA – FEBRUARY 27: Jonathan Majors attends the Los Angeles Premiere of “CREED III” at TCL Chinese Theatre on February 27, 2023 in Hollywood, California.,Image: 759431241, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Pictured: Jonathan Majors, Credit line: Jeffrey Mayer / Avalon
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- Jonathan Majors arrives on the red carpet of The 95th Oscars® at the Dolby® Theatre at Ovation Hollywood on Sunday, March 12, 2023.,Image: 762316040, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: – / Avalon
And yet, white man Brad Pitt is fully welcomed by Hollywood and sponsors. Ezra Miller still has movies and supported by major studio.
Jonathan is an abuser and deserves what is happening to him but I see racism playing a part in this as well.
I still wonder what will happen to Ezra after The Flash movie is released. I think the main reason DC is reluctant to kick him to the curb is because The Flash is their lynchpin movie that will re-boot the DC universe. Since the multiverse is a thing now, he can easily be replaced after this.
Racism goes without saying in Hollywood, but this dismissal reads interesting between the lines. This tells me his team is having a direct problem with him, and he’s not listening. Pitt’s awful, but he follows his PR to the letter. And Ezra? Well while they are done after this Flash movie (I’m almost certain), it’s been total silence for months hasn’t it? They are locked up somewhere, doing exactly what they’re told.
There’s more to come out about Majors and his actions were not a surprise…that’s what this tells me.
The thought I had was him being in Creed. He gained a lot of muscle in a short amount of time for that role. So he probably took steroids to do it. I wondered if this was just roid rage? Not excusing what he did. But if this was a one off. It might explain it.
Robert, whoever that poor woman is, JM had his hand(s) around her neck and that is one of the biggest, reddest flags in forspelling if someone could murder their partner. If he took drugs of any sort, ate too much sugar, had a bad day…it absolutely doesn’t excuse him.
JM is a good actor, but giving him excuses for his actions is not good. What usually winds up happening is that the dude gets rehabbed and is able to repeat.
there’s always racism in entertainment industry, but I don’t think that played a role here. rather it’s the texts and the way it’s been picked up that made it so the management team/PR just do not think he is worth the trouble. plenty of black entertainers have gotten a pass for being abusive POS. re: chris brown, R. Kelly (for a long time), 50 cent (charged with assault). the victims in these scenarios are the women, often black women, who have to live with their abusers getting the minimum punishment and little to no consequences to their career
This makes me think they caught him in some sort of lie. These companies can work with wrongdoing, but they do not want to clean up your mess and then find out things were missed because you didn’t tell them everything.
@Concern Fae that’s my suspicion as well. As others have said there are lots of management and PR firms that go right on representing some seriously garbage people of all colours. It’s not the same as with studios who have to worry about their public brand and products. For these reps to bail before we even know the outcome of the criminal matter? There’s something else here. Interesting…and troubling.
@ Concern Fae, agree. Look at how R. Kelly kept his victims silenced for almost TWO decades. Hell, even Weinstein was eventually fully exposed even though actors, agents, writers and directors actively participated with Weinstein for multiple decades. The only one that seems to have escaped from consequences are Woody Allen and Roman Polanski.
Concern Fae, I agree. Here his people started a strong DARVO defense immediately, released supposedly incriminating texts (never verified) from the victim, and then silence. The video that was supposed to exonerate him never leaked. Yale twitter seemed to support his not-so-friendly reputation. And people are abandoning him or distancing from him—it looks like something nastier is being suppressed.
I do think that there are important factors to distinguish Ezra Miller. Unless I’m mistaken, the Flash movie was all-but completed when Ezra started his reign of terror. I don’t think he’s getting any new jobs or signing up for any new franchises; Warner Brothers has this film that they need to release in order to finish the Snyderverse and start the DC Universe as helmed by James Gunn. I don’t think — and I certainly hope — that Ezra Miler will never work again once the Flash is released. I can’t imagine that WB plans to re-cast Superman, Wonder Woman, and Batman (the “Trinity”) but keep Ezra Miller in any capacity.
Brad Pitt? I just cannot with him.
I hope EM will never work again and I hope they need to pay for their crimes.
You reminded me that EM worked for Warner Brothers: there is (unfortunately for EM’s victims) a difference in perception. Disney sells itself as family-friendly entertainment in a way that WB does not.
The longer someone is able to accrue influence, power and money, the harder it is to get rid of them if they’re an abuser. I hope BP’s day is coming.
Racism is everywhere so yes, it will have played a part in terms of how quickly the gloves came off. It always does. But Brad Pitt is not the best comparison. He has been in this business for over 30 years, he’s made connections that go deep, and it’s been harder to figure out what he’s actually done. Don’t get me wrong, I think he’s a violent ass. But his PR managed to spin it into a break-up war. There was no spinning this particular story. His lawyer tried and made it worse.
In general it has always fascinated me in a terrible true crime kind of way who gets a pass and who doesn’t. Or what it takes to really tank a career. Kevin Spacey? I think homophobia was a factor. Bill Cosby and Weinstein? The sheer number of women and of course, the criminal investigations and ultimate convictions. And Ezra Miller isn’t working either. I think as long as you can make money for people and haven’t been convicted etc., you’re probably fine. It’s all disgusting.
Thanks for standing up for women and victims, Kaiser!
Studios need to start doing some deep dive PI background investigations into actors before they sign them up to multi-movie, multi-year deals where they’re a linchpin. Disney is massive. There should be no surprises like this from their high-profile faces.
This is the *second* story about misconduct from a Disney+ / Marvel actor -today-.
Who is the other story about?
F. Murray Abraham, he is part of the Moonknight show.
Thanks. I didnt know he is part of Disney/marvel.
No background check is perfect, but at this point I am STUNNED that when the studios are going to centre their huge, family friendly franchises on someone they don’t have to go through more checks than when joining the CIA. Marvel? Star Wars? I figured Disney would have this locked down. Guess not! 🤷♀️
Not just actors, but directors too. Actually, directors probably have even more influence on the workers and environment on set.
I hope the woman he violently assaulted is doing okay now. I never read her name in any of the article and maybe it isn’t out there in order to preserve her privacy / for protection. But I hope she is healing inside and out.
Her name should not be released unless she wants it to be.
Her texts sounded like she was terrified of angering him even more. I can see why she wouldn’t want her name out there and Majors has a lot of fans, too. It’s safer for her that we don’t know who she is. Although I wouldn’t put it past his ass-hat attorney to disclose who she is, so she can be harassed into a full recantation.
to be clear, I wasn’t saying her name should be released. I think it should be kept private, for good reasons. I just hope that she’s okay.
Her texts sound exactly like a woman suffering from emotional and physical abuse. I was that way too with my ex-husband as when they are released, you will certainly “pay” for having had them arrested. She was hospitalized from his beating of her!!! She is simply trying to keep herself alive, nothing more. She has been a victim this entire relationship and is struggling to break his hold on her. I hope that her family is able to get her to see the light and that NYPD press charges anyway.
Agree, I hope she is alright. The best thing about this blowing up so much is that it hopefully means her family and friends can help her get away from him/the backlash on him reinforces to her that this is not okay to treat her this way and she deserves better/the publicity means she can get away without any escalation of violence from him because all eyes are watching.
Yup!! Sorry, I posted the same response before reading all of the comments.
I wonder how Marvel will handle this. It won’t be as simple as canning him. They need to re-do ALL of their plans because ALL of Phase 5 was planned to lead up the Kang Dynasty. That’s going to take awhile to figure out.
For anything not filmed yet, they can just replace him if it comes down to it. Ask Terrance Howard. But the stuff that is already in the can …… they *could* reshoot it, if they were determined enough. They definitely have the money.
Loki Season 2 is set to come out this summer. There is no time to reshoot it. But you’re right about the rest. They can just recast him. Maybe they are waiting for Loki 2 to air before making that decision/announcement. He’s playing an evil bastard so maybe they think they can get away with it.
Snuffles – I read it somewhere that Loki is delayed, possibly because of reshoots
@vera
Oh, snap. Really? Well, yup, he’s toast.
Other actors have schedules that may not be flexible enough to do additional reshoots. Tom Hiddleston already had to back out of multiple projects years ago for reshoots on Thor movies. Unlikely, Feige would do that to him again, especially as his current projects are big, expensive productions, not the small independent films he had to drop before. A bit difficult to film season 2 of The Night Manager without The Night Manager.
It’s only a rumour / speculation so far, due to the Loki the release date changed from summer to coming soon
but it happened not long after the story first broke
One rumor has British actor Damson Idris (Snowfall) replacing him. I dont know how true that is but with JM being dropped like a hot potato, I’m sure Marvel has several possible replacements in mind.
Marvel is lucky they are doing a multi-versal story with Kang so future Kang’s don’t necessarily need to look like Majors.
I would love to know what happened to video that exonerated him that the lawyer claims to have. I’m sure a company whose entire purpose is to make someone look good would be able to use that instead of dumping him…
My guess is that if the video exists, it shows she may have started it but he brutally “defended” himself.
There is NO video that can help him. Even if she “grabbed his phone”, he had no right to brutalize her to the point that she passed out. He is toast no matter what the video shows.
@Mimi just to be clear I’m not making excuses for him are justifying his behavior in anyway. I’m really just talking to the mindset of an abuser. HE probably THOUGHT the video showed a credible reason for him beating her up not saying that it actually did.
Like I said, his PR team should have been able to do something if the video really exonerated him. The fact that they dumped him instead….
Marvel is represented by the same lawyers who just embarrassed Ron DeSantis in his attempt to takeover Disney World. If Marvel does something loud against Majors now, it could face serious consequences in a wrongful discharge case if Majors is acquitted. They have to take a wait and see on that. But meanwhile, I suspect Feige is taking steps to review everything. How can he reconfigure future scripts in which Majors was to play a major part. Not so difficult because they’re in the multiverse so a recasting could be quite fluid. What to do with scenes that have already been shot? Like Loki 2? If the decision is to recast and reshoot, are the other actors available to reshoot? Disney cut Gina Carano loose from The Mandalorian for far less than this but their lawyers made sure they went through investigations, progressive discipline, and attempts at mediation so she had NO chance in a wrongful discharge case. And Feige can keep secrets. If he’s reaching out to actors to recast, there will be no rumors until it is done.
YES. Also, they learned their lesson about reacting without facts back when they canned James Gunn, to immediate fan backlash. Slow and steady wins the case.
“reacting without facts back when they canned James Gunn” Gunn’s own words were what got in him in trouble. His comments about children were disgusting.
This just sucks. I am not a Stan at all, and I hope he faces all the legal consequences he deserves, but it is very hard to ignore the very giant black And white elephant in the room.
I, we assume Ezra’s whole thing was mental Illness Related but even still a d*** is a d*** is a d*** and why Does A white d*** get protected. While a black dick gets dumped it really Just sucks all around.
While race is obviously a factor, I think the police getting involved is what made this case particularly swift. That tape must be so damning that no amount of spin could change the facts. Everything that Ezra did somehow managed to get less attention. I think this is closer to how Arnie Hammer’s blow up went – too loud to be ignored. But regardless, no matter how famous you are, if you’re Black and mess up, it will be taken away in a heartbeat.
not necessarily. i think it’s about power and connections and what you can offer to continue to be relevant and bring in the $$$; AND how well you allow your PR team to spin it. re: chris brown, 50 cent, R kelly etc. in this sense, majors is at the beginning of his climb and easy for ppl to drop him bc he’s not well established. Ezra is done. after the flash i don’t think anyone would want to work with him as a liability.
@ Runaway, true but DC spent $200 million to film The Flash. EMs scandals/crimes surfaced after the film had been completed so it was cost prohibitive to reshoot the movie and it’s been reported that he’s playing multiple Flashes. I doubt he will be in any sequels though. Disney has a “family friendly” image to protect plus trying to build another new franchise. If his own people are dropping him…
One DC and Marvel are two different companies. So they deal with problems in two different ways. The Flash was mostly finished when all Ezras problems surfaced. Loki 2 will still probably have Majors because its finished filming. And Marvel hasn’t gotten rid of Majors yet. That is all speculation. I agree that there is still a lot of racism in Hollywood. But I’m not sure that this is one of them.
I feel very bad for the victim. I’m glad Majors is facing some consequences, but I’m dying to know how Disney will handle this in the long run. They have invested a lot in him. Reshoots are expensive
I doubt they reshoot Loki. We don’t know how much majors is even in it. But they don’t need a costly delay. I think people get that. But going forward? I doubt he survives this. Marvel, more than Disney, has prided itself on casting family friendly, non controversial team players. There’ve been some flare ups (Letitia Wright and Evangeline Lilly the most prominent and controversial) but nothing on the scale of DC and nothing like a violent assault charge. I think majors is definitely on the way out.
Too bad Michael B Jordan had such a prominent role already. He was so menacing as killmonger and woujd be a great Kang. Such a good actor. And he was the kind of team player they value as he showed coming back to BP2 for a vital cameo. (And thinking of MBJ just makes me miss Chadwick even more.)
Yahya Abdul Mateen would be great but they snapped him up for another role already.
Call me craven, but I don’t think Hollywood’s done with him at all. You can’t overstate how much is planned for this guy’s career, he is positioned to be an Oscar winner and box office superstar. I think this rep exodus is now part of a PR redemption plan, to give his team moral cover. Of course if a lot more terrible stuff is revealed, this could turn into an Armie Hammer situation, but I don’t think it is going to be one. There’s just too much value in on Majors’ future potential. I don’t approve but these days the PR heavy hitters reasonably believe they could redeem almost anyone. They could bring someone back from the dead.
This could play out like Shia LaBeouf situation where everybody conveniently forgot that he was caught on video abusing Mia Goth when Honey Boy was released. Or maybe not since he’s not white. Whatever the case maybe, I hope Marvel replaces him for the sake of safety of their cast/crew members. Why should anyone feel unsafe at their workplace? Guys like him, Shia, Jared Leto, etc deserve to stay unemployed for the rest of their lives.
It kind of astonishes me that people never take into account what all is in the balance if they can’t be decent human beings. Even if you get away with it for awhile, it always catches up with you.