The Jonathan Majors Fallout Has Begun

By Angelina Chapin, a senior writer for the Cut  who covers gender, crime, and culture

Photo: Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic

On March 25, police responded to a 911 call involving Jonathan Majors in Manhattan. Officers said there had been a “domestic dispute” between the actor and a 30-year-old woman, according to an NYPD statement at the time, and they briefly took Majors into custody. The internet exploded with reactions ranging from denial and shock to, in a few cases, validation; the U.S. Army pulled an advertising campaign featuring the actor. But there was a vacuum of information about what professional fallout he might face until April 17, when Variety reported Majors had been dropped by his talent manager, Entertainment 360. His PR firm had severed ties a few weeks earlier, a source close to the situation confirmed to the Cut.

The actor has ridden a rocket ship to fame since his 2019 starring role in the indie film The Last Black Man in San Francisco; Kang the Conqueror, his villainous character from Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, is set to become a fixture of the Marvel franchise and the focus of a new Avengers movie in 2025. He’s also received critical acclaim for his performance in Magazine Dreams, which premiered at Sundance and will appear on big screens this December. It’s still unclear exactly how much the allegations will affect his rising star.

Below, everything we know about Jonathan Majors’s arrest and the subsequent fallout.

TMZ broke the story and, citing law-enforcement sources, reported that Majors and his girlfriend had been fighting in a cab about text messages from another woman. The woman told officers who arrived at the scene that she had been assaulted, according to the NYPD statement, and she was taken to the hospital with minor head and neck injuries. A criminal complaint reviewed by the Cut says Majors had put his hand on the woman’s neck, “causing bruising and substantial pain,” and had hit her in the face, leaving “a laceration behind her ear.”

Majors was initially arrested on charges that included strangulation and released later that day with an order of protection. The strangulation charge was later dropped, and he is now facing charges of misdemeanor assault, aggravated harassment, attempted assault, and harassment.

In the immediate aftermath of Majors’s arrest, his lawyer called the actor “entirely innocent.” “Unfortunately, this incident came about because this woman was having an emotional crisis, for which she was taken to a hospital yesterday,” defense attorney Priya Chaudhry said in a statement. “The NYPD is required to make an arrest in these situations, and this is the only reason Mr. Majors was arrested. We expect these charges to be dropped soon.” Chaudry also claimed that Majors called 911 out of concern for the woman, and that she planned to submit exonerating evidence to the Manhattan district attorney’s office, including “video footage from the vehicle, witness testimony from the driver and others who both saw and heard the episode, and most importantly, two written statements from the woman recanting these allegations.”

None of that purported evidence has been released publicly. On March 30, however, Chaudhry released a series of alleged text messages from the woman. “They said they had to arrest you as protocol when they saw the injuries on me and they knew we had a fight,” one message read. “Will make sure nothing happens about this. I told them it was my fault for trying to grab your phone. I only just got out of hospital. Just call me when you’re out. I love you.”

In another alleged text, the woman said, “they do not have my blessing on any charges being placed. I read the paper they gave me about strangulation and I said point blank this did not occur and should be removed immediately.” She goes on to assure Majors that “I’m doing all I can [on] my end. I also said to tell the judge to know that the origin of the call was to do with me collapsing and passing out and your worry as my partner due to our communication prior.”

After news of the arrest broke, two people working in the entertainment and theater industries tweeted their concerns about Majors, alluding to stories they’d heard about his alleged behavior. “It’s a shame it took this long for him to be reported,” wrote one. Some fans also rushed to Majors’s defense online, saying he was being unfairly targeted as a Black man, while others were predominantly concerned with the Marvel franchise’s future.

When Majors’s legal team released the purported messages from the woman involved in the arrest, some tabloids, like the New York Post, said the texts “appear to prove innocence.” Under more careful headlines, domestic-violence experts noted that it’s common for abusers to manipulate survivors into thinking they themselves are to blame for the violence. On Twitter, the texts didn’t have the effect Majors’s defense was looking for, either: “‘I told them it was my fault for trying to grab your phone’ isn’t the flex Jonathan Majors and his lawyers think it is,” read one viral tweet.

Leigh Goodmark, a law professor and gender-based-violence expert, warns against drawing conclusions based on these messages alone. “You could read these a number of different ways,” she tells the Cut. “I don’t think they definitively exonerate him or show her being controlled. I think it’s possible the truth is somewhere in the complicated middle.”

Majors will no longer be accompanying the luxury brand Valentino to the Met Gala, a decision that was “mutually agreed upon,” according to Deadline. But so far, the showbiz world has stayed mostly mum. Marvel has not commented on the arrest, nor have any high-profile actors, directors, or producers who have worked with Majors. His talent agency, Entertainment 360, did not immediately return the Cut’s request for comment, nor did his lawyer.

Majors is facing criminal charges, meaning he’s being sued by the Manhattan district attorney. A hearing in the case is scheduled for May 8. Prosecutors can move forward with the case regardless of how the woman involved feels about the charges, but her participation factors into the strength of their arguments. “This shouldn’t affect what the state does at all,” said David Henderson, a former Texas prosecutor in San Antonio who now handles civil-rights cases. “But it will affect what happens at trial.”

Henderson said he’s had to weigh his own thoughts on justice against the victim’s wishes in the past. While he doesn’t want survivors to feel retraumatized on the stand, he also doesn’t want them to be in active danger. Ultimately, he says, he wouldn’t “drop a case just because a [victim] doesn’t want to move forward,” especially if there is “physical evidence” of abuse.

Many domestic-violence experts, however, disagree with that approach. Goodmark says survivors should be in charge of what happens legally. “Many victims recognize that the criminal legal system will not give them safety and will not hold their partners accountable in ways that matter to them,” says Goodmark. “If you’re a victim who loves your partner and doesn’t want to see them incarcerated, particularly if your partner is a person of color, that system is not going to meet your needs.”

Henderson says it’s too early to know whether the case against Majors will go to trial. In terms of the next hearing, “nothing significant” is likely to happen; whether or not the case moves forward, he says, “depends almost entirely on the prosecutor and how well they can manage this.”