‘Loki’ producer explains Jonathan Majors’ controversial return in this week’s episode

Jonathan Majors, currently facing assault charges in the US, made his return to Marvel TV series Loki this week, unveiling his new character: 19th century inventor Victor Timely. But the show’s new episodes were completed long before allegations were made against the actor, producer Kevin Wright confirmed to NME.

First reported in March, Majors was arrested on assault, strangulation and harassment charges in New York, after being accused of assaulting a 30-year-old woman during an alleged “domestic dispute”. Majors denied the allegations. He appeared in court in August, after which his criminal defense lawyer Priya Chaudhry released a statement denying the allegations again and calling for them to be thrown out, claiming that they had delivered evidence to prove the woman had attacked Majors and “not the other way around”. Another court date is set for October 25. Majors has been dropped from a number of high profile film and TV projects since his arrest, including thriller The Man In My Basement – but is currently starring in Loki‘s second season despite some fans expecting his role to be cut.

“In regards to our show, we had finished shooting [when Majors was arrested],” Wright told NME. “We were really happy with our story – and I would say the story that’s on screen is the story that we set out to tell. And anything else, I think, we wouldn’t say.”

When asked if there have been any internal conversations about Majors’ continued involvement in the series beyond season two, Wright declined to comment, saying that he couldn’t “say too much without spoiling this season.”

Majors made his Marvel debut in Loki in 2021 as supervillain He Who Remains, a variant of the mysterious, all-powerful Kang The Conqueror, who Majors later played in blockbuster film Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania. He Who Remains was killed at the end of season one, but Majors returned this week in season two’s third episode to play another of the character’s variants, Victor Timely.

Timely is a scientist living in turn-of-the-century Chicago whose inventions include a Time Loom prototype similar to one used by the TVA, a central futuristic organisation whom protagonist Loki is involved with.

“I think Timely is just a fun character from the comics,” said Wright. “When you look at all the Kang variants, he’s the oddball out. [We thought], ‘We’ve got to do something with that.'”

He added: “It also allowed us to time-travel and go to some really cool places.” The Chicago World Fair of 1893 is the setting for episode three, when Timely is introduced.
“You think that it’s gonna be a sci-fi film from the future and it’s this kind of unassuming eccentric inventor from the past who really believes in the stuff that he’s doing.”

‘Loki’ releases new episodes on Disney+ every Friday in the UK, Thursday evenings in the US

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