Where does the MCU go from here, as Jonathan Majors is found guilty after his court case?

Should Disney have perhaps had a contingency plan for this event? They didn’t seem to have one when they fired James Gunn after some of his previously “edgy” tweets made the light of day, prompting cast members involved in “Guardians of the Galaxy” to publicly message their support of the director - but that was not a criminal matter. At the same time, it’s not like this situation with Majors was something that suddenly had just come up.

But the entire next phase is based around Major’s character, Kang the Conqueror, with his appearances in “Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania” establishing himself as the big bad, while Season 2 of “Loki” on Disney+ cemented his importance in the multiverse. So as unfair as it may sound, Marvel Studios have painted themselves into this corner. 

It’s also led to issues working with other Marvel properties, with news that the creators of a Spider-Man cartoon set to arrive on Disney+ looking to distance themselves from the MCU properties to prevent the public scrutiny that is now going to go along with whatever decision Disney make regarding the actor, the role and the storylines going forward. But what options could “The House of Mouse” attempt to salvage not only “The Avengers” film, but the entire set of storylines leading into “The Kang Dynasty”? 

Option 1: recast the role

The first option and the one that many feel might be the case is to go ahead with “The Kang Dynasty” storyline but with a different actor playing Jonathan Major’s role. The MCU could easily explain why a different actor is portraying Kang The Conquerer thanks to the most recent season of “Loki,” which dealt with the idea of variants across the multiverse of a singular entity. 

The version of Kang that we’ve seen might not be the true, all-powerful supervillain that the next crossover event looks to take on, and a recasting could be a deus ex machina as the true, strongest variant of Kang reveals itself. One of the most popular names so far being banded around the internet to take over the role is British actor John Boyega, who is no doubt familiar with getting involved in all-sprawling franchises thanks to his work on another Disney property, “Star Wars.”

Option 2: change the villain for “The Avengers” crossover event.

Then there is the possibility that with the time between now and the dual “The Avengers” crossover events they could change the storyline and include a new villain to portray the big bad. With the advent of a “Fantastic Four” movie involving Galactus The World Eater, and with subtle nods to the character through an easter egg in “Guardians Of The Galaxy,” the MCU could bring him in as the “big bad” of the event, who along with the Silver Surfer has had a history with a number of The Avengers throughout their comic book history. 

Galactus wouldn't be a new character to fully introduce either, by virtue of his appearance on the Disney+ series "What If..." - and if deleted scenes are anything to go by, there was initially a scene in "Thor: Love and Thunder" that saw both Silver Surfer and Galactus appear. But that would mean that there is no supervillain for the “Fantastic Four” movie? Well, just bring back the character of Doctor Doom once again - it’s not like he hasn’t been brought back twice before when the franchise attempted to become a success (and failed - twice.)

Option 3: scrap "The Kang Dynasty" and concentrate on "Secret Invasion" further

Pretty much what the subheading says; we've had the Kree and the Skrull introduced through the MCU series "Secret Invasion" and both "Captain Marvel" and "The Marvels." In the Marvel comic book crossover event, it turns out that a number of the world's superheroes were actually Skrulls bent on, as the television series starring Samuel L. Jackson revealed, taking over Earth as their new home planet. That means that, if the MCU really wanted to bring some of their older stars back including Robert Downey Jr, there's a plausible reason for his appearance - that's not really Tony Stark, that's actually a Skrull posing as Tony Stark.

It means that there wouldn't need to be drastic changes to the scripts going forwards, with "Loki" creator Michael Waldron currently set to rework the entire "Avengers" crossover event. That also means that a number of popular stars could make cameo appearances as Skrulls posing as the superheroes we've come to know and love, boosting perhaps the interest audiences have in a genre of cinema that, throughout this year, has taken hit after hit after hit.

Those cameos don't even have to be Skrull versions either - as seen in "Dr Strange and The Multiverse of Madness," there is a shadowy organisation that overlooks what is going on in the multiverses - The Illuminati. In the comic books, one of the members of the groups is Dr Strange himself - meaning that if Benedict Cumberbatch wants to call time on his MCU career, there is easily means to keep his character within the folklore, but not a constant presence on screen.