Marvel, Disney drop actor Jonathan Majors after he's convicted of assaulting his former girlfriend

NEW YORK — Jonathan Majors was convicted Monday of assaulting his ex-girlfriend after a two-week trial that he hoped would restore his status as a rising Hollywood star, but did the exact opposite when Marvel Studios and Walt Disney Co. dropped him immediately after his conviction.

A jury in Manhattan found Majors, 34, guilty of one count of assault and one misdemeanor count of harassment. He was acquitted of another charge of assault and of aggravated intimidation.

Majors, who was asked to stand and face the jurors as the verdict was read, did not immediately respond and looked slightly down. He declined to comment as he left the courthouse.

Marvel and Disney immediately dropped Majors from all upcoming projects following the sentencing, said a person close to the studio who was granted anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.

Majors previously planned to be a central figure in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, playing the antagonistic role of Kang. Majors had already appeared in “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” and the first two seasons of “Loki.” He was set to star in 'Avengers: The Kang Dynasty', which was set for release in May 2026.

Majors, whose credits include “The Last Black Man in San Francisco,” “Devotion” and “Da 5 Bloods,” was one of the fastest rising stars in Hollywood. The actor, who attended the Yale School of Drama, also starred as a troubled amateur bodybuilder in “Magazine Dreams,” which made a critically acclaimed debut at the Sundance Film Festival in January and was set to hit theaters earlier this month. Prior to Majors' trial, Disney distributor Searchlight Pictures removed “Magazine Dreams” from its release calendar.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said in a statement that the trial showed a pattern of abuse and coercion that a jury said “culminated in Mr. Majors' assault and harassment of his girlfriend.”

Majors' sentencing was set for February 6. He faces up to a year in prison on the assault conviction, although probation or other non-jail sentences are also possible.

The charges stemmed from a dispute between the “Creed III” actor and his girlfriend, Grace Jabbari, that began in the backseat of a chauffeured car and spilled onto the streets of Manhattan one evening last March.

Jabbari, a 30-year-old British dancer, accused Majors of attacking her in the car, saying he hit her on the head with his open hand, twisted her arm behind her back and squeezed her middle finger until it broke. She said she was in “excruciating” pain.

Majors' lawyers said she was the aggressor and that she flew into a jealous rage after reading a text message — from another woman — on his phone. They said Jabbari had spread a “fantasy” to take down the actor, who was just trying to get his phone back and get away safely.

The verdict was a major blow to Majors, who was on the brink of Hollywood stardom until his arrest sent his career into a tailspin.

Majors arrived in the courtroom each morning carrying a gold-leaf Bible and offered hugs to his family members and his current girlfriend, actress Meagan Good, before taking his seat. He wiped away tears during much of the testimony as his attorney, Priya Chaudhry, urged jurors to “end this nightmare for Jonathan Majors.”

But while Majors sought vindication from the jury, the trial also unearthed new evidence about his troubled relationship with Jabbari, whom he met two years ago on the set of “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.”

Prosecutors accused Majors of a “cruel and manipulative pattern” of abuse and shared text messages in which the actor begged Jabbari not to seek hospital treatment for previous head injuries. One message warned: “It could lead to an investigation even if you lie and they suspect something.”

They also played audio of Majors calling himself a “great man” and then questioning whether Jabbari could live up to the high standards set by Martin Luther King Jr.'s spouses. and Barack Obama. The major's lawyers countered that Jabbari had secretly recorded her boyfriend as part of a plot to “destroy” his career.

During four days of tearful testimony, Jabbari said Majors was excessively controlling and prone to outbursts of explosive anger that left her “quite physically scared.” She collapsed on the witness stand as a jury viewed security footage of the aftermath of the backseat confrontation. Prosecutors described it as an example of Majors “assaulting” her and pushing her back into the car “as if she were a doll.”

Majors took no stand. But Chaudhry said her client was the victim of “white lies, big lies and pretty little lies” invented by Jabbari to take revenge on an unfaithful partner.

The attorney cited security footage taken immediately after the push that showed Majors sprinting away from his girlfriend as she chased him throughout the night. Jabbari then followed a group of strangers she met on the street to a dance club, where she ordered drinks for the group and did not appear to favor her injured hand.

“She was getting revenge and charging the man she was angry with for champagne and treating these strangers to luxury champagne she bought with Jonathan's credit card,” Chaudhry alleged.

The next morning, Majors called the police after finding Jabbari unconscious in the closet of their Manhattan penthouse. He was arrested at the scene, while Jabbari was taken to a hospital to be treated for injuries to her ear and hand.

“He called 911 out of concern for her and fear of what would happen if a black man acted in America,” Chaudhry said, accusing police and prosecutors of ignoring Majors' allegations that he was bloodied and scratched during the dispute was not to be taken seriously. .

In her closing arguments, prosecutor Kelli Galaway said Majors followed a well-worn playbook used by abusers to spin the narrative by labeling their victims as attackers.

“This is not a revenge plot to ruin the defendant's life or career,” Galaway said. 'You were asked why you are here? Because domestic violence is serious.”

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This story has been corrected to reflect that the maximum one-year prison sentence applies to the assault conviction, not the harassment charge.