Marvel Fans Reject Kevin Feige’s Claim That Doctor Doom Replacing Kang Unrelated To Jonathan Majors’ Arrest: “Nobody Believes This”
While speaking to journalists in a roundtable interview at the Disney Headquarters, Kevin Feige, addressed the replacement of Jonathan Majors’ Kang with Robert Downey Jr.’s Doctor Doom as the main villain of the Multiverse Saga.
The Marvel Studios president raised eyebrows after claiming that Jonathan Majors’ getting arrested for assault wasn’t the real reason why Marvel replaced his character.
During the press conference, via Deadline, Feige stated, “Even before what had happened to [Jonathan Majors], we had started to realize that Kang wasn’t Thanos.”
“There was only one character that could be that because he was that in the comics for decades and decades, and because of the Fox acquisition, we finally had it, and that’s Doctor Doom,” he reassured attendants, adding, “We had started talking about Doctor Doom even before we officially pivoted from Kang.”
Feige would then double down, declaring, “In fact, I had started talking with Robert about this audacious idea before Ant-Man 3 even came out.”
Social media was quick to react to his claims, with many outrightly accusing him of lying, while others blamed the writing of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania for making Kang untenable as the MCU’s next Avengers-level threat.
“I think Jonathan Majors did a great job portraying Kang the Conqueror, which may be the most wasted character in MCU,” X user @te_Neil_et opened a string of negative reactions to the news posted on the platform by The Hollywood Handle.
Blaming the failure of Kang on the poor writing of Majors’ character in Ant-Man 3, @Themoviebinge87 declared, “When the supposedly most menacing variant of all the Kangs gets beat by a 3rd tier character and a bunch of ants, the entire thing loses credibility. Wrote themselves into a corner on that one.”
Others, like X user @blackiewashere, went even further by opening a string of memes to call out Feige’s claims as outright lies, featuring a picture of Captain America: Brave New World star Anthony Mackie with a caption that read “When you know they lying but you still listening.”
Similarly, the comments section was also damning on Discussing Film’s post of the news. Pointing out the inconsistency in Feige’s comments, X user @ResonantJustice asked, “Is that why they made plans for a completely different Avengers movie than the one we’re currently getting when Ant-Man was coming out? and had a huge post-credit scene teasing the Council of Kangs?”
“Come on lol. Nobody believes this,” the user concluded.
Others like @JeanLucConnery aired their displeasure with the decision, going as far as claiming it to be potentially catastrophic for the network, asserting, “Bringing back Jr. is a big mistake. He’s far past his recall date and won’t be able to deliver the demanding role as Dr. Doom. This will be the final nail in Marvel’s coffin.”
On an Instagram post by Dexerto, which also covered the news, users were equally distrustful of Kevin Feige; with many pointing out the inconsistencies between his comments and the timeline of events.
Responding to the news, user @wyatt_smyth_ questioned, “Didn’t Kevin say majors was the core of the next saga?”
Instagram user @omgrodzilla echoed the sentiment, further inquiring, “If ant man hadn’t flopped his character, would he still say this?”
“That’s why you announced an avengers movie about kang,” ironically pointed out @jacsonswain.
User @zick.wolf called out the purportedly premeditated move, declaring, “So you wasted like an entire series and multiple movies? Yeah, bulls—t.”
“So you discussed how to get rid of Jonathan Majors,” also decried @captsow.
Reddit users were equally unaccepting of Feige’s claims with Kang’s appearance in the post-credits scene of Ant-Man and Wasp: Quantumania proving to be a sticking point.
“Nah I think this is rubbish,” read one of the comments in a popular thread on the r/marvelstudios Subreddit, in which most users dismissed the comments made by the Marvel Studios president, further adding, “He featured in Loki S1 finale, Antman (including post-credit scene, which I thought was pretty chilling and well done), and Loki S2.”
It continued, “He was clearly going to be the big bad for this phase. Maybe RDJ as Doom was a plan at some point further in the future post-Kang, but they would have gone through with Kang beforehand had the legal issues not come up.”
Robert Downey Jr.’s return as Doctor Doom wasn’t announced until Jul 28, 2024, at the San Diego Comic Con. This was over a year after Jonathan Majors was arrested. Jonathan Majors’ legal troubles, on the other hand, escalated just over one month after the release of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantamania.
The film’s mid-credits scene remains the sticking point for most audiences, setting up Kang to be the new main threat; something Marvel would’ve been less likely to do had Feige already been in talks with the former Iron Man actor.
While Feige’s comments suggest that there was nothing unplanned about what is probably the most audacious casting decision in MCU history, Reddit users were less than convinced by his remarks.
“We were already planning on scrapping Kang before Ant-Man 3 came out… which is why we left in that Council of Kangs mid-credit scene,” a user asked on yet another thread on the r/shittymoviedetails Subreddit, questioning the unresolved mid-credits scene from Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.
The seemingly abandoned post-credit scene keeps coming up in fan threads because it was clearly setting up Kang as the ultimate villain of the multiverse; with deadlier variants of the character who’d likely take over from He Who Remains.
In the scene, Rama-Tut, Scarlet Centurion, and Immortus, all seemingly deadlier variants of Kang, are introduced as they discuss taking over the Multiverse; suggesting that He Who Remains was likely preventing them from doing so.
Another user also dismissed Kevin Feige’s claim that the Marvel hierarchy realized Kang couldn’t be as big as Thanos, decrying, “That is ridiculous, Thanos was as big as Kang before the MCU so that makes no sense. I don’t doubt that the flop of Antman 3 was a major reason for scrapping the character instead of just recasting him, but this is just ridiculous.”
While Thanos is bigger than Kang in terms of raw strength, Kang’s ability to traverse the multiverse and manipulate events in his image is unmatched. Moreover, the MCU already unleashed Kang as a multifaceted villain with astounding brilliance in controlling time travel and conquering universes in the two seasons of Loki, as well as Ant-Man 3.
Others also agree with this position, arguing that there was virtually no reason why Marvel couldn’t make Kang as big or even bigger than Thanos. Some in the thread also suggest that recasting Kang would have been a better decision than dropping the character altogether, a move that Feige and other Marvel higher-ups don’t seem to be considering.
However, there are others who have been claiming that Doctor Doom was a way bigger villain than Kang. In a three-year-old thread on the r/MCUTheories Subreddit, some users actually suggested that Kang would have had to give way to Doctor Doom at some point, since the latter is the ultimate antagonist of Secret Wars in the comics.
The decision to transition from Kang to Doctor Doom was rushed, though, leaving insufficient time to build up RDJ’s Doctor Doom as a villain. Most MCU fans who aren’t conversant with the comics are therefore more familiar with Majors’ Kang than Doctor Doom, so many don’t know just how dangerous he could be.
