Popverse's top stories of the day

• Humanity blossoms into something... new in BOOM! Studios' In Bloom this December
• Agatha All Along got you wondering how magic works in the MCU? Here's your guide to Marvel's many on-screen magicians
• What can we learn from the brief life of Jermaine Clement and Taika Waititi's Time Bandits reboot from Apple TV+?

Kang is out of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and the Doctor is in — but how does the disgraced actor who had played the former time-traveling Conquerer feel about this development? Jonathan Majors has spoken publicly about being replaced as the big bad of the MCU by Robert Downey Jr’s Doctor Doom, now that it’s entirely official that Marvel has moved away from Kang entirely for the remainder of the Multiverse Saga.

“Yeah, heartbroken,” Majors said when asked by TMZ if news of Downey’s hiring to replace Kang upset him. “I mean, I love Kang. I love Kang. Doctor Doom does look good, though.”

When asked if he thought it was unfair that both Robert Downey Jr. and Ezra Miller, who played the Flash in a number of movies for Warner Bros. Pictures, who have famously had their own troubles with the law in the past, were being given opportunities that Majors was denied, he said, “I think it’s fair that Mr. Downey has been greeted with patience and curiosity and love, and that Mr. Miller has gotten the same treatment, and they’re being allowed to work their art and be creative at that level. I’m not — I didn’t really get that.”

Majors was dropped by Marvel back in December 2023, following being found guilty of 3rd degree assault and 2nd degree harassment of a of a former girlfriend. For context, Downey Jr. has multiple arrests throughout the 1990s relating to drug possession, but had been clean for seven years by the time he was cast in the first Iron Man movie. (Miller, meanwhile, has been arrested multiple times on a variety of charges during the period he was playing DC’s The Flash; while he was not replaced in that role, he was recast on Prime Video’s Invincible series.)

Asked if he wants his role back as Kang, he enthusiastically said, “Hell yeah! That’s why I said I love him. Love Kang. Love Timely [the alternate Kang from the Disney+ Loki series]. Love He Who Remains [another alternate Kang from Loki]. If that’s what the fans want, if that’s what Marvel wants, let’s roll.”

Avengers: Doomsday is set for release May 2026.

Keep up to date on Popverse's Marvel coverage, with these highlights: How Marvel Studios is now working "much more closely" to sell Marvel comics, where Marvel sees its future audience (and it's not at Marvel, yet!), Overgrown children of the atom: Marvel's X-Men can't evolve past their '90s commercial peak, the biggest outstanding questions of the Marvel Studios' movies & TV shows, Marvel's accidental closure on the Kang storyline, and Phil Coulson is the heart of the MCU (and it's time it starts beating again).