December 20, 2023 • 17 mins
A Mini Episode where Brad discusses jonathan majors be fired from the role of Kang by Marvel.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:17):
From Geppetto Studios in New Freedom,Pennsylvania. Welcome to the Cosmic Geppetto Podcast,
your home for inclusive, positive geekculture where we talk about movies,
comics, music, books, andwhatever else we feel like. Please welcome
your host. Sh he doesn't knowthat Donald Glover and Childish Scambino are the
(00:40):
same person. Brad Mendenhall, Heykids, It's episode of two ninety seven
of the Cosmic Geppetto Podcast. Somany episodes with breaking news. As I'm
(01:07):
recording this, we are I guessabout twenty four hours removed from the announcements
that Jonathan Majors, who has playedKang the Conqueror in two seasons of Low
Kie as well as the third antMan film, has been fired from the
(01:29):
Marvel Cinematic universe. I'm not sureif fire is the right term. They've
parted ways. Actually, I thinkfire is the right term. Majors was
convicted on two counts related to he'shad legal issues. There were two convictions.
It seems so that Marvel was waitingfor the outcome of the trial.
(01:52):
I am not a legal expert.To me, for whatever value there is,
I believe that Marvel was sort ofsaid that they were gonna part ways,
but the conviction was enough to pullthe trigger on that. I don't
(02:14):
know. Often I know there aremorality clauses in the contracts. It might
have made it easier for Marvel slashDisney to end the relationship with those convictions,
I have made it easier not topay them for stuff. Not that
long ago, Johnny Depp was removedfrom the Fantastic Beast films and they had
(02:42):
to pay him. They basically paidhim. I want to say it was
at least ten million dollars to notbe in the last Fantastic Beast movie.
My understanding, which again is imperfect, but my understanding is they didn't have
enough to Johnny Depp was having somuch bad press on account of the trial
(03:04):
and the turmoil with his for hisex wife Amber heard, and they wanted
to walk away from him, butthey still had to pay him. I
am wondering if Jonathan Majors because ofthose convictions, that was enough for them
to end the contract and not haveto pay him or pay him less.
(03:27):
I don't know. There's a lotto talk about. Well, what's next.
Kang, the character that Jonathan Matrixwas playing in the Marvel films and
TV shows. Was going to bethe central antagonist in the next Avengers movie.
Was actually called going to be calledAvengers colon Kang Dynasty. I wasn't
(04:00):
and I wasn't particularly excited about that. Majors is a very charismatic performer,
a very good actor. He wasan actor on the rise. However,
(04:20):
Kang the character, and I knowthere's some big Kang fans, both part
of the cosmic Gyppedal world and ourfandom. I don't know that the take
they had on Kang was strong enough, both in personality powers, which I
(04:48):
think had been sort of vague sofar. Design He wasn't as striking design
as Thanos. Was a lot ofreasons introducing him as a villain in the
third ant Man film. I don'tknow if that worked. Remember, Thanos
(05:13):
had so did so little in themovies leading up to Infinity War. You
just got a little bit of Thanosand it was enough to pique everyone's interests.
And then he shows up and withinthe first five ten minutes of being
proper of being a proper villain ina Marvel film, he beats up the
(05:36):
Hulk with relative ease. Kang hasn'thad that. Marvel is in a weird
place right now where they're a littlebit on a losing streak. While people
(06:00):
will certainly enjoyed Guardians, but antMan didn't do well. Marvel's has done
poorly, and they need to touse a term that I always enjoyed in
h since Sporting World. They needto get off the schneid. They need
(06:23):
a couple of wins. I thinkDeadpool three is definitely going to be a
win. I don't know if CaptainAmerica Brave New World will be. I
don't know if Thunderbolts will be andI honestly don't know if Avengers Kang Dynasty
(06:44):
if there was enough interest there,there wasn't a lot of buzz about the
director, who, if memory servesit was the same director who did Shang
Chi, which was a good movie, but it wasn't. That announcement didn't
excite people the way that Joss Whedondirecting the first Avengers movie. People were
(07:11):
excited about that. The Russo brothers, who would come off of the Captain
America Winter Soldier and Captain America CivilWar. People were excited about the Russo
brothers taking over the franchise, andI don't know who could who could get
(07:39):
people excited about that. Perhaps Idon't know Sam Raimi. I think people
will be excited. I don't knowif Sam Raimi would do a great job
with it, and I love SamRaimi, but he is I don't know
(08:01):
if an Avengers movie plays into hisstrengths at all. Perhaps with the I'm
completely blanking on the name, butthe director of the first two Iron Man
films, who's gone on to dowho went on to do The Lion King
live action and at one point wasconsidered to be a front runner to direct
(08:28):
the first Avengers film. I thinkpeople will be excited by that. Obviously,
there's big names out there, JamesCameron, Tim Burton. They would
never do it in a million years, so I don't know. I don't
(08:54):
know the names, so I don'tthink people were excited about it. From
that perspective. People just weren't excitedabout Kang Dynasty. I'm wondering. I'm
wondering if either it would be awise idea to shut it down, move
(09:16):
away from Kang, recast the roleand have him and have the character knocked
out or put on the sidelines inthe first ten minutes of Thunderbolts or and
(09:39):
or sort of refocus on what you'redoing here. My understanding, and these
movies are so far out time wise, My understanding was Kang Dynasty was going
to lead into Avengers Secret War.I wonder lean into the Secret War of
it and have it have the nextAdventures movie be Secret War Part one and
(10:05):
then Secret War Part two, maybeeven the people who weren't familiar and Secret
War was a twelve issue mini seriesand it was I think like the second
comp book I ever got was anissue of Secret War where that was where
(10:26):
Spider Man got the black costume andthe antagonist was the Beyonder, who's this
all powerful i'minna present omnipotent being.And you could basically, and in Secret
War, Kang was obliterated pretty earlyinto the part way through the series.
(10:54):
I think you could theoretically you coulddo that change it around where the Beyonder
pulls all the characters from these differentfaucets of the multiverse and Kang's there,
and beyond her as a show ofpower obliterates Kang immediately, and you know,
this shows how tough the Beyonder isand also removes Kang from the equation.
(11:22):
It's very much a shame that thishappened. Jonathan Majors, who,
regardless of or to the side ofhis personal behaviors both in his personal relationships
as well as there have been alot of rumors about him being difficult on
(11:46):
the set, was an on therise actor. He was very good.
I know apparently the movie that Ibelieve has been completed that was also from
Disney, he was apparently excellent init. Then we're talking about Oscar Buzz
(12:11):
and that movie has now been shelved. And I hate movies. I hate
hearing when movies are shelved because regardlessof the fact that somebody with questionable or
abhorrent personal behavior, it's still there'sso many people involved in making movies happen,
(12:33):
and so many people whose work willnever be seen. And it's bad
enough when it's a case of Backgirl, where allegedly that's because it was a
bad movie, But when it's somethinglike this, where it's a good movie.
It's a movie that deserves to beseen, it's a movie that would
have gotten award consideration. But whenall those people's work is not going to
(12:58):
see the light day until who knowswhen that's really heartbreaking. I don't know
if Jonathan Majors will ever be ableto re establish his career. I'll be
very curious to see five years fromnow if he ever is able to get
(13:18):
back even a small semblance of hiscareer. We're not We're not seeing any
new work from Armie Hammer. Weare not seeing any new work from Kevin
Spacey. I'll see what happens.It's it's really heartbreaking and to see a
(13:39):
top tier talent his career destroyed becauseof his own behaviors and it's really a
shame. So on that happy note, I will be back soon and until
then, in the words of jarFarden, seeing the Funny, Subscribe to
(14:20):
the Cosmic Geppetto podcast on iTunes,Stitcher, or wherever quality podcasts can be
found. Rate and review us whilethere. Follow us on Twitter at Cosmic
gpod, and we will follow youback unless you're a jerk. We don't
follow jerks. Like us on Facebookat Facebook dot com, forward slash Cosmic
Geppetto. We love hearing your ideasfor upcoming episodes. Email us at cosmicchupeto
(14:46):
at Comcast dot net. Now comeagain now you're here talking about. Is
(15:43):
not an enemy, thinking they
From Geppetto Studios in New Freedom,Pennsylvania. Welcome to the Cosmic Geppetto Podcast,
your home for inclusive, positive geekculture where we talk about movies,
comics, music, books, andwhatever else we feel like. Please welcome
your host. Sh he doesn't knowthat Donald Glover and Childish Scambino are the
(00:40):
same person. Brad Mendenhall, Heykids, It's episode of two ninety seven
of the Cosmic Geppetto Podcast. Somany episodes with breaking news. As I'm
(01:07):
recording this, we are I guessabout twenty four hours removed from the announcements
that Jonathan Majors, who has playedKang the Conqueror in two seasons of Low
Kie as well as the third antMan film, has been fired from the
(01:29):
Marvel Cinematic universe. I'm not sureif fire is the right term. They've
parted ways. Actually, I thinkfire is the right term. Majors was
convicted on two counts related to he'shad legal issues. There were two convictions.
It seems so that Marvel was waitingfor the outcome of the trial.
(01:52):
I am not a legal expert.To me, for whatever value there is,
I believe that Marvel was sort ofsaid that they were gonna part ways,
but the conviction was enough to pullthe trigger on that. I don't
(02:14):
know. Often I know there aremorality clauses in the contracts. It might
have made it easier for Marvel slashDisney to end the relationship with those convictions,
I have made it easier not topay them for stuff. Not that
long ago, Johnny Depp was removedfrom the Fantastic Beast films and they had
(02:42):
to pay him. They basically paidhim. I want to say it was
at least ten million dollars to notbe in the last Fantastic Beast movie.
My understanding, which again is imperfect, but my understanding is they didn't have
enough to Johnny Depp was having somuch bad press on account of the trial
(03:04):
and the turmoil with his for hisex wife Amber heard, and they wanted
to walk away from him, butthey still had to pay him. I
am wondering if Jonathan Majors because ofthose convictions, that was enough for them
to end the contract and not haveto pay him or pay him less.
(03:27):
I don't know. There's a lotto talk about. Well, what's next.
Kang, the character that Jonathan Matrixwas playing in the Marvel films and
TV shows. Was going to bethe central antagonist in the next Avengers movie.
Was actually called going to be calledAvengers colon Kang Dynasty. I wasn't
(04:00):
and I wasn't particularly excited about that. Majors is a very charismatic performer,
a very good actor. He wasan actor on the rise. However,
(04:20):
Kang the character, and I knowthere's some big Kang fans, both part
of the cosmic Gyppedal world and ourfandom. I don't know that the take
they had on Kang was strong enough, both in personality powers, which I
(04:48):
think had been sort of vague sofar. Design He wasn't as striking design
as Thanos. Was a lot ofreasons introducing him as a villain in the
third ant Man film. I don'tknow if that worked. Remember, Thanos
(05:13):
had so did so little in themovies leading up to Infinity War. You
just got a little bit of Thanosand it was enough to pique everyone's interests.
And then he shows up and withinthe first five ten minutes of being
proper of being a proper villain ina Marvel film, he beats up the
(05:36):
Hulk with relative ease. Kang hasn'thad that. Marvel is in a weird
place right now where they're a littlebit on a losing streak. While people
(06:00):
will certainly enjoyed Guardians, but antMan didn't do well. Marvel's has done
poorly, and they need to touse a term that I always enjoyed in
h since Sporting World. They needto get off the schneid. They need
(06:23):
a couple of wins. I thinkDeadpool three is definitely going to be a
win. I don't know if CaptainAmerica Brave New World will be. I
don't know if Thunderbolts will be andI honestly don't know if Avengers Kang Dynasty
(06:44):
if there was enough interest there,there wasn't a lot of buzz about the
director, who, if memory servesit was the same director who did Shang
Chi, which was a good movie, but it wasn't. That announcement didn't
excite people the way that Joss Whedondirecting the first Avengers movie. People were
(07:11):
excited about that. The Russo brothers, who would come off of the Captain
America Winter Soldier and Captain America CivilWar. People were excited about the Russo
brothers taking over the franchise, andI don't know who could who could get
(07:39):
people excited about that. Perhaps Idon't know Sam Raimi. I think people
will be excited. I don't knowif Sam Raimi would do a great job
with it, and I love SamRaimi, but he is I don't know
(08:01):
if an Avengers movie plays into hisstrengths at all. Perhaps with the I'm
completely blanking on the name, butthe director of the first two Iron Man
films, who's gone on to dowho went on to do The Lion King
live action and at one point wasconsidered to be a front runner to direct
(08:28):
the first Avengers film. I thinkpeople will be excited by that. Obviously,
there's big names out there, JamesCameron, Tim Burton. They would
never do it in a million years, so I don't know. I don't
(08:54):
know the names, so I don'tthink people were excited about it. From
that perspective. People just weren't excitedabout Kang Dynasty. I'm wondering. I'm
wondering if either it would be awise idea to shut it down, move
(09:16):
away from Kang, recast the roleand have him and have the character knocked
out or put on the sidelines inthe first ten minutes of Thunderbolts or and
(09:39):
or sort of refocus on what you'redoing here. My understanding, and these
movies are so far out time wise, My understanding was Kang Dynasty was going
to lead into Avengers Secret War.I wonder lean into the Secret War of
it and have it have the nextAdventures movie be Secret War Part one and
(10:05):
then Secret War Part two, maybeeven the people who weren't familiar and Secret
War was a twelve issue mini seriesand it was I think like the second
comp book I ever got was anissue of Secret War where that was where
(10:26):
Spider Man got the black costume andthe antagonist was the Beyonder, who's this
all powerful i'minna present omnipotent being.And you could basically, and in Secret
War, Kang was obliterated pretty earlyinto the part way through the series.
(10:54):
I think you could theoretically you coulddo that change it around where the Beyonder
pulls all the characters from these differentfaucets of the multiverse and Kang's there,
and beyond her as a show ofpower obliterates Kang immediately, and you know,
this shows how tough the Beyonder isand also removes Kang from the equation.
(11:22):
It's very much a shame that thishappened. Jonathan Majors, who,
regardless of or to the side ofhis personal behaviors both in his personal relationships
as well as there have been alot of rumors about him being difficult on
(11:46):
the set, was an on therise actor. He was very good.
I know apparently the movie that Ibelieve has been completed that was also from
Disney, he was apparently excellent init. Then we're talking about Oscar Buzz
(12:11):
and that movie has now been shelved. And I hate movies. I hate
hearing when movies are shelved because regardlessof the fact that somebody with questionable or
abhorrent personal behavior, it's still there'sso many people involved in making movies happen,
(12:33):
and so many people whose work willnever be seen. And it's bad
enough when it's a case of Backgirl, where allegedly that's because it was a
bad movie, But when it's somethinglike this, where it's a good movie.
It's a movie that deserves to beseen, it's a movie that would
have gotten award consideration. But whenall those people's work is not going to
(12:58):
see the light day until who knowswhen that's really heartbreaking. I don't know
if Jonathan Majors will ever be ableto re establish his career. I'll be
very curious to see five years fromnow if he ever is able to get
(13:18):
back even a small semblance of hiscareer. We're not We're not seeing any
new work from Armie Hammer. Weare not seeing any new work from Kevin
Spacey. I'll see what happens.It's it's really heartbreaking and to see a
(13:39):
top tier talent his career destroyed becauseof his own behaviors and it's really a
shame. So on that happy note, I will be back soon and until
then, in the words of jarFarden, seeing the Funny, Subscribe to
(14:20):
the Cosmic Geppetto podcast on iTunes,Stitcher, or wherever quality podcasts can be
found. Rate and review us whilethere. Follow us on Twitter at Cosmic
gpod, and we will follow youback unless you're a jerk. We don't
follow jerks. Like us on Facebookat Facebook dot com, forward slash Cosmic
Geppetto. We love hearing your ideasfor upcoming episodes. Email us at cosmicchupeto
(14:46):
at Comcast dot net. Now comeagain now you're here talking about. Is
(15:43):
not an enemy, thinking they
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