Disney Faces Massive New “Johnny Depp” Problem as Actor Officially Charged With Assault

The entertainment industry is in turmoil following the arrest of one of its new rising stars, and now charges have been made, The Walt Disney Company is dictated by its own history and may respond as it has done before.

Related: Keanu Reeves Replaced Johnny Depp In Billion-Dollar Franchise

The domestic abuse allegations made against Johnny Depp from both the press and his ex-wife, actress Amber Heard, left the movie star out of work and exiled from Hollywood. Depp’s career took a nose-dive when, in 2018, News Group Newspapers LTD publication The Sun published a story claiming the Pirates of the Caribbean star was a “wife-beater.”

What ensued was years of domestic violence litigation both at the London High Court in the United Kingdom for the libel case against The Sun (which Depp lost in 2020 and subsequently lost his appeal request in 2021) and the following $50 million defamation case the actor set against Amber Heard.

The latter came after Heard published an Op-Ed in The Washington Post about her experience of being a victim of domestic abuse and assault. While Depp was never named, many outsiders took that the Aquaman (2018) actress was documenting her relationship experience with the actor. In 2019, two months after the published essay, Depp sued Heard, and three years later, the two would end up in court in Fairfax County, Virginia, to testify their cases.

Both Depp and Heard were found guilty of defaming each other, but it would be the Captain Jack Sparrow star that would come out the winner in the eyes of the public and through the damages dealt by the jury.

Despite his win in Judge Penney Azcarate’s courtroom, Depp has not been reinstated in any of his previous roles. During the libel trial in London, Depp was forced to resign from his role as Gellert Grindelwald, the dark wizard antagonist in Warner Bros.’s Fantastic Beasts franchise. His time as Jack Sparrow in Disney and producer Jerry Bruckheimer’s billion-dollar Pirates of the Caribbean series is also at its end.

So, the actions that were taken against Depp by the House of Mouse — that is, the company’s reaction to the domestic abuse claims and his loss at the London courts where Justice Andrew Nicol decided that claims of abusive behavior were “substantially true” — must then be extended to any other actor who ends up in a similar situation. Disney’s own history is likely going to dictate the outcome of one key Marvel performer.

The Jonathan Majors arrest and what could happen next.

The Jonathan Majors arrest shocked many. Over the weekend, Kang the Conqueror actor and star of the new Creed III (2023), Jonathan Majors was arrested in New York City over claims of assault and aggressive behavior. While Majors’s team quickly responded, saying the actor looks forward to clearing his name (despite an outpouring of claims from the industry stating otherwise), yesterday proved that the story is far from over.

Per The Guardian, it has been confirmed that the Lovecraft Country actor has been charged with the following:

“…the district attorney’s office confirmed the actor had been charged with several counts of assault in the third degree, three counts of attempted assault in the third degree, one count of aggravated harassment in the second degree, and one count harassment in the second degree.”

Related: MCU Star Calls 911 Right Before “Assaulting” Victim

Majors was released on his own recognizance and granted a limited order of protection. His next day in court is on May 8, 2023.

The assault complaint comes from an unknown female accuser who claims the actor struck “her about the face with an open hand, causing substantial pain and a laceration behind her ear” and that he “put his hand on her neck, causing bruising and substantial pain.”

Despite the unsettling claims, Majors’s defense lawyer Priya Chaudry stated the team was quickly gathering evidence to prove the actor’s innocence and would present findings to the District Attorney’s office in order to get the charges dropped. This was Sunday, and Monday proved that would be fruitless as Majors was charged.

If Disney were to follow in the footsteps of their handling of the Johnny Depp situation, then this would mean that both CEO Bob Iger and Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige would have to remove Majors from the Marvel Cinematic Universe and replace him as Kang the Conqueror in response to the alleged assault.

The actor Jonathan Majors first made his appearance in the MCU back in 2021’s Loki television series, where he starred as He Who Remains — a Variant of Kang the Conqueror. Then, just last month, Majors became the principal antagonist in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023) alongside Paul Rudd’s Ant-Man. This subsequently set up the rest of Phase Five and Phase Six and suggested an even larger-than-expected Kang presence right through to Avengers: The Kang Dynasty (2025) and Avengers: Secret Wars (2026).

How the future of the MCU now factors in Majors’s Kang is anyone’s guess, as neither Disney nor Marvel has spoken out on the issue at hand.

Do you think Disney will deal out the Johnny Depp treatment in response to the Jonathan Majors arrest situation? Let Inside the Magic know in the comments down below!