Jonathan Majors 'heartbroken' to be replaced by Robert Downey Jr as Marvel villain

Jonathan Majors has reacted to news Marvel have replaced him as a villain for upcoming blockbuster films.

The 34-year-old actor's career imploded last year when he was convicted of assault and harassment in court.

As a result, Marvel dropped him from playing supervillain Kang the Conqueror - despite his character being featured in a number of movies and TV shows.

He had been due to reprise the role in two future Marvel's Avengers movies, but now the character has been cut completely and Robert Downey Jr will play supervillain Doctor Doom instead.

Robert's involvement in the new Avengers films was announced at a convention last weekend, and when asked how he felt about being replaced, Jonathan told TMZ on Wednesday, "Yeah, heartbroken. Of course... I love Kang. Dr. Doom is wicked, though."

Jonathan was due to play Kang in Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and Avengers: Secret Wars after already playing the character in the 2023 film Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and in the Disney+ series Loki.

Rather than re-cast the character, Marvel has seemingly pivoted away from the storyline completely - hiring Robert to play iconic villain Doctor Doom in films Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars.

Reports have suggested Robert will be paid $80 million (£62 million) to star in the two films - having previously played Tony Stark aka Iron Man in 10 previous Marvel Cinematic Universe films.