The Rise and Fall of Jonathan Majors

Within a couple of years of emerging into popular consciousness with HBO's Lovecraft Country in 2019, the actor was given the veritable keys to Hollywood after being tasked with ushering in the next phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe as new big bad Kang the Conqueror. The role was not simply villain, but the lynchpin for a multiversal saga spanning multiple blockbuster franchises.

But just as swiftly his rocketing star came crashing down, with his personal life catching up to his public persona.

On Monday, Majors was found guilty in his assault case. A New York jury found the 34-year-old had attacked and harassed his now ex girlfriend, British choreographer Grace Jabbari during an argument earlier this year in March.

The immediate repercussion of the conviction was Marvel Studios cutting him from any future projects. The Disney-owned production company had been waiting with baited breath for months to see how the courtroom drama played out before divesting themselves from their lucrative investment.

Majors had already starred in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and two seasons of Disney+ series Loki, with a slew of blockbuster films in the pipeline. Per THR, Marvel has already tasked Loki creator Michael Waldron to rewrite The Kang Dynasty, with a new working title of Avengers 5.

Majors wasn't just a movie star in the making, he was someone who many believed would have not only realized blockbuster success but accolades reserved for the most talented of entertainers.

His prestige bodybuilding drama, Magazine Dreams, was already getting awards buzz with many touting his performance as an Oscar contender.

For a brief moment Jonathan Majors seemed to be on the cusp of a brilliant career.

He was a graduate of the Yale school of drama, earning critical acclaim with his breakout film role in 2019's The Last Black Man in San Francisco. Then came his Lovecraft Country HBO series and suddenly the world seemed to open up for the actor. Spike Lee cast him as a pivotal character in his film Da 5 Bloods. A series of films followed, such as Devotion, cementing his status in tinseltown.

Amid this public love affair with Majors across media, Michael B. Jordan tapped him to play his antagonist in Creed III, effectively introducing him as a serious actor with an unmatched physicality.

At the forefront of the boxing movie was a quality Majors carried in all of his roles up until that point -- the unbearable weight of a wounded masculinity he was dragging behind him, spilling over into every crackling moment on screen.

That bristling violence, roiling under the surface of his best performances, may have been more real than any of us had imagined.

Regardless of his talent or unrealized potential, Majors' career has been put on permanent pause as he faces up to a year in prison when he's sentenced in February next year.