Summary

• Jonathan Majors is set to star in the movie Merciless, his first since his conviction for assault and harassment.
• Merciless producer Christopher Tuffin deliberately cast Majors as a political statement, not despite of his past but because of it.
• The film follows a CIA interrogator battling a sinister force using dark methods, and is set to film in Saskatchewan.

Jonathan Majors is set to star in his first movie, Merciless, since he was convicted of assault and harassment. In the middle of his meteoric rise on the back of Creed III and the Marvel movie Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Majors was arrested for an altercation with his then-girlfriend. In December 2023, he was found guilty on two misdemeanor counts of assault and harassment, was dropped from several projects, and sentenced to a 52-week domestic violence intervention program.

Now, the actor has landed his first role following the convictions. According to Deadline, Majors is set to star in a supernatural revenge thriller titled Merciless, directed by Martin Villeneuve, the younger brother of Denis Villeneuve. The original screenplay is written by Frank Hannah, known for penning The Cooler and the Steve Austin star vehicles Damage and Hunt to Kill. The forthcoming film follows a CIA interrogator whose beloved becomes possessed by a sinister force, and he must use darker methods to defeat it. Filming will take place in Saskatchewan in late fall.

Why Jonathan Majors Was Cast In Merciless

It Appears To Be A Deliberate Political Statement

Shortly after Majors was arrested in March 2023, several entities began cutting ties with him, starting with his management company and public relations firm, as well as ad campaigns for the United States Army and Texas Rangers. The actor was also dropped from several movies, including an adaptation of the Walter Mosley novel The Man in My Basement, and the already completed Magazine Dreams was removed from Searchlight's release schedule. After Majors was convicted, Marvel finally dropped him from his multiversal role as Kang the Conqueror.

Merciless will be Majors' first movie since his conviction, and it appears he wasn't cast in spite of his criminal past, but because of it. The project was developed by producer Christopher Tuffin, who is preparing to launch a new global media venture. Merciless is expected to showcase the disruptive nature of this new initiative which, as Tuffin says, "refuses to let the court of public opinion and selective prosecution undermine great art and artists." Tuffin shared a longer statement on "the dangers of letting politics undermine due process and deprive artists of their careers":

In graduate school, I had the good fortune to study screenwriting under Blacklist scribe Millard Lampell and learned from him the dangers of letting politics undermine due process and deprive artists of their careers. I consider it an honor and a privilege to be working with Jonathan who is such a great talent now that this matter has been adjudicated.

Tuffin was previously a producer on Sound of Freedom, which caused controversy for its connections to a QAnon conspiracy theory. Now, by casting someone convicted of assault and harassment, Merciless has the chance to be equally controversial. By casting Majors in Merciless, Tuffin minimizes the seriousness of his conviction and appears to be using the actor to propagate his own twisted ideological agenda, which is not about promoting artistic freedom but ignoring the reality of Majors' conviction.

Merciless does not yet have a release date.

Source: Deadline