New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
Yale graduate Jonathan Majors stars in ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’
Yale University graduate Jonathan Majors has once again stepped into the Marvel Cinematic Universe with his portrayal of Kang the Conqueror in “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.”
The Emmy nominated Majors made his entrance into the MCU in 2022’s “Loki” series on Disney+, where he played the mysterious He Who Remains, a variant of the character of Kang. In “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,” Majors takes on the persona of yet another Kang variant who is seeking to escape his banishment in the “Quantum Realm” with the help of Ant-Man and his family.
Before he was wrecking havoc across Marvel’s Multiverse, Majors attended the Yale School of Drama and graduated with a Master of Fine Arts degree in 2016. While attending Yale, Majors starred in five different plays produced by the School of Drama. Majors was also featured in productions by Yale Repertory Theatre and Yale Cabaret.
In 2022, Majors hosted “Saturday Night Live” alongside musical guests Taylor Swift. While delivering his monologue, Majors poked fun at his time at Yale.
“I like to say I was born in California, raised in Texas, educated in North Carolina, roughed up in
New York City and then re-educated in New Haven, Connecticut,” Majors said. “Which I guess is my roundabout way of saying, ‘yeah, I went to Yale.’”
Majors told Vanity Fair that shortly after graduating, he almost walked out of his first general meeting with Marvel.
“I grew up in a very particular way and I don’t want to waste nobody’s time. So I got in there and they’re just busy. And I was like, ‘I’m supposed to be here, right?’ It got long and I went, ‘I’m just going to go. It’s cool. I’ll just go,’ ” Majors said. Majors was stopped before he got out the door and that conversation opened the door to the “Kang chat” three years later.
During this past weekend, “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” managed to pull together a $104 million opening weekend, according to Box Office Mojo. It has also secured the largest opening weekend for any movie so far this year.
Majors will appear next on the silver screen as Damian Anderson in “Creed III,” which will pit Majors against protagonist Adonis Creed, played by Michael B. Jordan. Majors will also reprise the role of Kang in 2025’s “Avengers: The Kang Dynasty” and 2026’s “Avengers: Secret Wars.”