When Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania belatedly premiered on Disney Plus this May 17, it didn’t take Marvel fans long to notice something odd: Jonathan Majors’ Kang the Conqueror is conspicuously absent from the movie’s synopsis on the streaming site, despite being the main villain of the piece. Not to mention the overarching antagonist of the entire Multiverse Saga.
Following on from recent promos that likewise featured zero footage of the foe, this seemed to compound the belief that Marvel’s current strategy of dealing with the thorny issue of what to do with Majors, amid his legal troubles, is to simply pretend he doesn’t exist. In fact, according to the latest rumored intel on the matter, this is exactly the company policy at present.
According to The Cosmic Cirus’ Alex P., “It appears there’s an order on promotional material/articles from Disney regarding the arrival of [Quantumania] on Disney+: Under no circumstance is any article allowed to mention Jonathan Majors or his involvement in the film as Kang.”
The insider continued by saying, “In addition, new Disney articles that are meant to promote the film reference Majors and his role as Kang the Conqueror as the following: “the new threat that frightens everyone” as opposed to mentioning the actor and even the character by name.”
Some commenters expressed confusion at how this could be when Marvel.com’s official news item on the film’s streaming release name-checks Majors. Alex P. clarified that Marvel remains legally required to list the actor among the cast.
With Loki season two, in which Majors will reprise Kang (or at least his variant Victor Timely), officially set to arrive on Oct. 6, Marvel can’t keep on ignoring Majors’ presence in the MCU forever, but it seems that’s the state of play for now. Although we’re supposed to forget he’s in it, you can watch Majors as Kang in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania on Disney Plus now.