- Jonathan Majors is an actor, well-known for roles in ‘Lovecraft Country’ and ‘The Harder They Fall.’
- Jonathan Majors will star as Kang in ‘Ant-Man 3.’
- Jonathan Majors has a daughter.
Jonathan Majors is one of the newest stars of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. He plays Kang The Conqueror in the upcoming Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania, which hits theaters on Friday, February 17. The actor, 32, revealed that he’d been approached about being in a Marvel film long before being cast as Kang in a February 2023 Vanity Fair interview. “We got in the room and we chatted. We were having this great conversation. I think it was three years later that we had the Kang chat. And there’s no trepidation now, especially because of who Kang is. When I said yes, we got the whole picture, and what is being laid out is cohesive,” he said.
While the new Marvel film will be first exposure that many fans will have to Jonathan, he’s already made an impact starring in some other projects. HollywoodLife has five things that you need to know about Jonathan here!
1. Jonathan had a troubled childhood.
Jonathan was born on September 7, 1989 in Lompoc, California, and moved with his family to Dallas, Texas. Jonathan’s father, who was in the Air Force, abandoned the family when Jonathan was young, though the two eventually reconnected. Jonathan had a very rough go while growing up in Dallas. “I found myself getting into fights, being bullied, and then retaliating,” he told The Hollywood Reporter in 2019. Per that interview, Jonathan was also caught shoplifting and had to do community service. The fights in school resulted in suspension, and eventually, he was kicked out of the house and had to live in his car. However, Jonathan found solace during these troubling times in his passion for theater. “The one thing that was consistent from the age of 14 to that time was that I was in the theater,” he told THR. “I just wanted to be in the world and be a part of it.”
2. He started his acting career in 2017.
Jonathan got his acting start in the 2017 ABC miniseries When We Rise while he was still enrolled in Yale University to obtain his Masters of Fine Arts degree. Prior to being cast in When We Rise, he had very small roles in the anthology film Do Not Disturb and the TV movie Much Ado About Nothing. Jonathan’s next role was the Western movie Hostiles, followed by the 2018 films White Boy Rick and Out of the Blue. His big break came with the 2019 independent film The Last Black Man in San Francisco, which received critical acclaim and earned Jonathan an Independent Spirit Award nomination. Another big role for Jonathan was 2020’s Da Bloods, a war film directed by Spike Lee that also starred Chadwick Boseman. Prior to Ant-Man 3, Jonathan’s most recent role was in the 2023 bodybuilder film Magazine Dreams.
3. He starred in HBO’s ‘Lovecraft Country’
Jonathan was among the cast of HBO’s 2020 horror series Lovecraft Country. Jonathan played Atticus Freeman in the show, which also starred Jurnee Smollett, Courtney B. Vance, Jamie Chung, and more. Jonathan’s performance earned praise from fans and critics alike. He even snagged a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series in 2021, but he lost to Josh O’Connor of The Crown. Sadly, Lovecraft Country was canceled by HBO after only 1 season.
4. He made his MCU debut in ‘Loki.’
While the appearance in Ant-Man 3 may be the first time some Marvel fans see Jonathan as Kang, but he actually made his debut as “He Who Remains” in the Disney+ series Loki. The appearance in Ant-Man is only the first of many movies that Kang will play a part in. Marvel has already announced that he’ll also make appearances in Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and Avengers: Secret Wars.
5. He has a daughter.
Jonathan is a proud father to an 9-year-old daughter. The identity of the girl’s mother is unknown, though Jonathan has said that his child is mixed-race. In June 2020, he spoke to People about the importance of his daughter knowing about history. “She has to understand that it’s actually not ‘black history’— it’s American history. The way it’s taught now, its honestly the Jim Crow system of separate but equal,” he said. “We’ll give it one month, 12 pages in the history book…we’ll talk about Harriet Tubman, Rosa Park, MLK, then we’ll give you a little quiz about it. And that’s it.”