With Marvel releasing The Fantastic Four: First Steps trailer this morning, as part of what should be a busy year following a quiet 2024, it’s time to tackle a couple of rumors. Both of these are pretty interesting otherwise I wouldn’t bother since neither is guaranteed actually to happen.
The big one is sure to cause some controversy. Jonathan Majors’ legal issues are well-known, but he’s served his sentence and his critically acclaimed film Magazine Dreams is due to arrive in March after a long delay. So now that Majors is making a comeback, perhaps a return to the MCU is in store?
According to Screen Geek (judge accordingly), Marvel’s Kevin Feige is considering bringing Majors back to the MCU as Kang the Conqueror. Majors played the role in Ant-Man & the Wasp: Quantumania, and two seasons of Loki. He was meant to play a major part in Avengers: The Kang Dynasty before he was fired and the film renamed Avengers: Doomsday with Robert Downey Jr. taking over the villain role as Doctor Doom.
I have my doubts about this one. Majors may have done his mandated sentence, but audiences have long memories when it comes to domestic violence and there will be a certain, possibly large, segment that will refuse to see any film with him in it.
The next rumor from MTTSH says Euphoria and Cuckoo breakout Hunter Schafer is being eyed to play Raven Darkholme aka Mystique whenever the X-Men reboot arrives. This follows other rumors of Harris Dickinson (The Iron Claw) being eyed to play Cyclops, Ayo Edibiri (The Bear) as Storm (this one I think is absurd), and Sadie Sink (Stranger Things) as Jean Grey.
Schafer would be the third actress to play the shapeshifting mutant terrorist Mystique in a live-action film, following Rebecca Romijn and Jennifer Lawrence. Her biggest film to date has been The Hunter Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, so she has blockbuster experience already.
Further rumors have the X-Men showing up in the next Avengers movies, and if that’s true we should start getting casting news soon.
