Anthony Mackie has weighed in on the recent domestic assault charges against fellow Marvel Cinematic Universe actor Jonathan Majors, stressing that guilt has not yet been proven.
“We’re a country that was built on ‘everyone is innocent until proven guilty,’” the “Twisted Metal” star told Inverse in an interview on Wednesday. “That’s one of the staples of this country. Nothing has been proven about this dude. Nothing. So everyone is innocent until proven guilty. That’s all I can say. It’s crazy where we are as a society. But as a country, everyone is innocent until proven guilty.”
On March 25, Majors, who played Kang the Conqueror in “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” and is poised to be Marvel’s main villain over the next several films, was arrested in the Manhattan neighborhood of Chelsea on assault, strangulation and harassment charges in connection to a domestic dispute involving a 30-year-old woman. The woman was reportedly Majors’ girlfriend. She was the one who called the police, telling officers that the actor had assaulted her the night before. “The victim sustained minor injuries to her head and neck and was removed to an area hospital in stable condition,” a spokesperson for the NYPD said at the time.
The woman at the center of Majors’ arrest was granted a full temporary restraining order in April. Majors also released a series of texts from the woman in question that TheWrap could not independently verify, which read “this was not an attack.”
Shortly after these allegations came to light, Majors was dropped by his management company Entertainment 360 and his PR team the Lede Company, according to a report from Deadline. Additionally, several organizations and projects have cut ties with the actor, including the United States Army, the Met Gala, Nadia Latif’s upcoming adaptation of “The Man in My Basement” and the Texas Rangers, which originally planned to use Majors in an ad campaign.
Majors, who appeared in court for the first time on June 20, will go to trial on August 3. His attorney, Priya Chaudhry, released a statement to TheWrap concerning the impending trial:
“Within a few weeks of these false allegations, we provided the District Attorney with evidence of Mr. Majors’ innocence. Last week, we delivered additional compelling evidence to the District Attorney, clearly proving Grace Jabbari’s assault on Jonathan Majors and not the other way around,” Chaudhry said. “This evidence includes videos of Ms. Jabbari’s frenzied attack on Mr. Majors and his running away from her. We also provided photographs illustrating the injuries she inflicted on Mr. Majors and photos of his clothing torn as a direct consequence of Ms. Jabbari’s violent actions.”
“Following this, we strongly requested the District Attorney dismiss all charges against Mr. Majors immediately and initiate proceedings against Ms. Jabbari, holding her accountable for her crimes,” the statement continued. “While we are hopeful that the District Attorney is reviewing these materials in good faith and will do the right thing soon, to accelerate our case, we’ve requested a trial date ASAP.”
Majors appears as Kang in the upcoming second season of the Disney+ show “Loki.” Kang is also expected to feature significantly in the upcoming films “Avengers: The Kang Dynasty” and “Avengers: Secret Wars,” which are currently slated to release on May 1, 2026 and May 7, 2027, respectively.
In addition to playing Kang, he starred as antagonist Dame Anderson in “Creed III” and has appeared in HBO’s “Lovecraft Country,” “The Harder They Fall” and “Devotion.”
Peacock’s “Twisted Metal” premieres on July 27. Mackie will return to the MCU for the film sequel “Captain America: Brave New World” alongside Harrison Ford on July 26, 2024.
