Vincent D’Onofrio Is Becoming The New Marvel Big Bad, Could He Replace Jonathan Majors?
Following his recent arrest, it's likely that Disney is looking to replace Jonathan Majors in the MCU, possibly with Vincent D'Onofrio.
With the recent arrest of Jonathan Majors, who plays Kang the Conqueror in the MCU, fans have been wondering if Disney will keep continue to work with the actor or if executives are currently planning on how to cut ties with Majors and replan Marvel’s Phase 5 without him. A recent reveal of the MCU’s plan for Daredevil’s Wilson Fisk (played by Vincent D’Onofrio) may hint that the studio is preparing to set up Kingpin as the next big bad and do away with Kang the Conqueror entirely.
With the release of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Jonathan Majors entered the MCU as Kang the Conqueror, a supervillain who had been banned to the quantum realm and whom Marvel was setting up to be the Big Bad of Phase 5. However, when Majors was arrested last week on charges of harassment and assault in a domestic altercation, fans wondered if the Disney-owned Marvel Studios would keep ties with the actor. While Major’s lawyer maintains that the actor is innocent, it seems the company has a pretty good backup plan where Vincent D’Onofrio can easily slip in to take Majors’ place.
According to Coming Soon, the MCU has big plans for Vincent D’Onofrio’s Kingpin. The actor has already made his highly anticipated return as the character in the studio’s Hawkeye series and will soon reprise the character again in Daredevil: Born Again. Per the report, D’Onofrio won’t just be sticking to those two shows but will see his character featured in many upcoming shows and movies by the MCU, possibly indicating Kingpin taking over for Jonathan Majors’ Kang.
Vincent D’Onofrio plays Wilson Fisk/Kingpin, a Mafia crime lord, and the next chapter in his character’s story sees Fisk running for New York City’s mayoral office. It’s a journey that will eventually see the corrupt politician winning, and in the meantime, in addition to Daredevil: Born Again, Fisk will appear in Marvel’s Echo, and it’s rumored that he will also show up in Armor Wars, Captain America: New World Order, Thunderbolts, Ms. Marvel and Spider-Man 4.
While it certainly seems as though Fisk will take over a large chunk of Marvel content, it would still take a fair bit of rewriting for the MCU to totally do away with Jonathan Majors.
Jonathan Majors has already been introduced to the MCU as Kang the Conqueror, a variant of a man named Nathaniel Richards, who is dead set on taking over as many multiversal worlds as possible. Like Vincent D’Onofrio, Majors is already signed on to appear in more MCU movies, including Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and Avengers: Secret Wars.
Kang is a powerful villain and one that many fans were excited about. He is a worthy big bad for the Avengers to face after Thanos and the conclusion of Phase 4. While Kingpin is also a popular villain (and many Marvel fans are excited to see him face off against Spider-Man, especially), he just doesn’t compare when it comes to multiversal-scale damage. Overall, he would be a disappointment to follow in the magnitude that was Thanos.
This is why it’s highly unlikely that the MCU would actually replace Jonathan Majors with Vincent D’Onofrio. While it’s obvious that Kingpin is about to become a major player in Marvel’s timeline, there’s just too much to redo to take away Kang completely. It is way more likely that if Disney decides to do away with Majors entirely, Marvel will end up recasting Kang with a different actor, something that would be easily explainable using comic book logic.
