U.S. Army Pulls Its Jonathan Majors Commercials in Wake of Actor’s Arrest
The U.S. Army has pulled from the airwaves two recruitment commercials featuring Jonathan Majors, in the wake of the film actor being arrested for alleged assault.
The commercials — which represent the Army’s first re-brand since 2001, and which were in heavy rotation during March Madness basketball coverage as recently as Saturday night — featured the star of Creed III and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania as both a narrator and central figure, traversing through battle scenarios.
Majors was arrested in New York this past Saturday on charges of assault and harassment, following what has been described as a domestic dispute with an unidentified 30-year-old woman. Police had responded Saturday morning to a 9-1-1 call in Chelsea and took Majors into custody without incident, while the alleged victim, who had sustained minor injuries, was taken to a local hospital.
An attorney for Majors issued a statement on Sunday claiming he “is provably the victim of an altercation with a woman he knows” and who was in the midst of “an emotional crisis.” The lawyer claims that there is evidence to support Majors’ innocence, including a written recantation from the woman he had been with.
Nonetheless, for the time being the Army’s ads featuring Majors have been shelved.
“The U.S. Army is aware of the arrest of Jonathan Majors and we are deeply concerned by the allegations surrounding his arrest,” the public affairs chief for the Army Enterprise Marketing Office said in a statement. “We recently released two ads in which Mr. Majors appears. While Mr. Majors is innocent until proven guilty, prudence dictates that we pull our ads until the investigation into these allegations is complete.”
I wonder how Disney Studios will proceed given this incident.
Make a large payment to the woman to recant?
His lawyer is claiming she recanted with 2 different signed documents…from her hospital bed. Curious how they still charged him.
Because domestic abuse victims often change their minds or recant after a cooling off period. Doesn’t mean the abuse didn’t happen or that the D.A. can’t still charge.
I know – I’m just surprised Disney wasn’t able to shut it down before he was charged. Having her sign documents while in the hospital with lawyers at the ready and him still being charged makes it all the more likely she was paid off.
How so? People come up with such weird assumptions and fantasies. But nobody actually knows anything.
I cant reply to DL for some reason. We know a woman was admitted into the hospital with injuries to her head and neck. A police report was issued and a man was charged with multiple counts of assault/harassment. Police in NYC are required to arrest someone for an accusation of domestic violence – they’re not required to charge that person. Its at the very least curious how she could be so “crazy” that she made up a story about him assaulting her but was somehow sane enough to sign TWO statements recanting all in the span of less than 24 hours.
Majors’ trial date is tentatively set for May.Until more is confirmed the U.S. Army’s decision is IMHO a prudent one. The police have the medical report of her injuries & determined there was enough evidence to press charges. His attorney claims he has proof that will clear Majors and get the charges dropped…as usual,many have already rushed to snap judgements on SM on both extremes.
I saw one of the ads the other day and really wondered about it. Was Jonathan Majors in the army? I couldn’t see anything online that confirmed that, but if he wasn’t why would he be in their commercials? Also, why would they pick him in particular if he never had been in the army?
He played a real-life hero in a war movie. “Devotion”
His father was in the military.
I saw one of these ads on Instagram moments ago, so they aren’t pulled from social media I guess.
Quantumania has played out at the box office, there likely will be a generic statement to condone violence and simply not focus on him in streaming or dvd/bluray promos.
Maybe, but the problem is that the character he plays, Kang, is meant to be the new Thanos. They can’t bury Kang…
Depending on how this plays out they can,however,recast the part.There is precedent in that his physical appearance has changed quite a bit through the years in the comics.
Marvels choices in this regard have been strange. Know for recasting Rhodey and Banner, and now having Thunderbolt Ross as so important they need to replace him, but decided not to do so with Black Panther, or James Bond the roles of Captain America or Iron Man. And now it’s costing them trying to go in without them.
.
Recasting this shouldn’t be a problem. But they’re inconsistent in this area at best. They’ve got a big problem in any case, because the image isn’t going away. But they’ve got a great multiverse crossover with DC in the Flash vs. Kang movie no one wants to see.
These companies so afraid to offend anyone they are now quick to pull the rug without getting all the full facts about this situation. What a shame.
Absolutely. The only thing that’s going to teach them to wait for all the facts is a solid wrongful termination lawsuit with a lot of zeroes.
They pulled a commercial they were paying to air. He got paid either way. They’re not required to release it. Everyone got paid for Batgirl but no one is going to see it. It wasn’t wrongful termination and there is no case.
You gotta be carefull as an high paid star/actor as these money hungry instagram babes are waiting to make a gripping story to get money and become famous playing the victim card.