Jonathan Majors is no longer having a moment. He is the moment.
Majors, whose slow-burn rise in Hollywood first spiked with his Marvel Cinematic Universe debut in Loki (2021), already had an impressive portfolio with critically acclaimed roles in The Last Black Man in San Francisco (2019), Da 5 Bloods (2020) and HBO’s Lovecraft Country (2020) and the incredibly underrated 2022 film, Devotion.
But it wasn’t until 2023 that Majors’ simmering stardom boiled over into full-blown celebrity with highly praised roles as Killian Maddox in the Sundance hit, Magazine Dreams; Kang The Conquerer in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and Dame Anderson in his latest box-office success, Creed III.
And it’s only March.
It’s not exaggeration to say Majors is everywhere right now, regularly breaking the internet with a new photo shoot or interview.
Even the United States Army got him.
But it’s not just because of his recent critical and commercial success. Majors is easily most fascinating man (and published poet!) in Hollywood right now and certainly among the most thoughtful when it comes to…just about everything. He’s not afraid to get deep in interviews or explain the thought process behind how he approaches his characters.
“The beautiful thing about what [Majors] does is we spent a lot of time talking about the heart, the feeling, what he’s after, the sort of subtext of his goals … all of those things,” Devotion director J.D. Dillard said of Majors’ process to embody Ensign Jesse Brown, the first Black aviator to complete the Navy’s basic flight training program.
When it came to playing Creed III‘s Dame Anderson, a man seeking a fresh start in the boxing ring after getting out of prison, Majors channeled personal experience. Growing up, Majors ran into his own trouble with shoplifting, school suspensions and even living in his car after getting kicked out of the house.
“I know Dame,” Majors told For the Win. “I could have been Dame, a highly emotional, highly intelligent youth that had some problems.” That familiarity with the character was also built into the physical depiction, showing Anderson as hunched over and covering himself, head on a swivel (as a boxer would).
He’s certainly not the first actor to make for an interesting interview, but in an industry where introspection and emotional intelligence often seem as performative as the movies themselves, it adds to Majors’ allure as someone who doesn’t seem nearly as impressed with himself as the rest of the world is right now. He’s not on social media and won’t watch his own movies, but he’s surprisingly open about what makes him tick, recently telling The Cut he cries often, falls in love daily and has uncomfortably specific tips for executing a flawless breakup.
Perhaps this is why every new detail we learn about Majors makes us want to know more, like the fact that he always carries around a mug after being told by his mother to protect himself growing up. “Now it means mind your cup,” Majors explained on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. “You’re a vessel. Nobody can fill you up. Nobody can pour you out. You do that yourself.”
He always walks around with a portable speaker, a move that inspired Michael B. Jordan to use two Nipsey Hussle songs as his character’s walk-in music in Creed III.
One thing’s for sure: Majors isn’t going anywhere. He’s already locked in for at least two more Marvel movies as Kang and is slated to play Dennis Rodman in an upcoming film about the notorious NBA star.
He’s going to be a star for a very long time. And the world will be watching.
