Inspiration can come from the most likely and unlikely of places. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly ahead of his big screen appearance as Kang in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Jonathan Majors has cited Heath Ledger as Joker in The Dark Knight as a significant influence on his career when it came down to becoming the MCU’s next Avengers villain, who will make his second appearance in the franchise in the next Ant-Man, the Joker performance of the late actor set the bar for him to hit.
Layers of inspiration came to Jonathan Majors when it came to his career when he first saw Heath Ledger in the second Christopher Nolan Batman movie. He called the actor “gorgeous” and gushed over how he had the “f—ing jawline,” but it came down to how he “didn’t give a f—” as he committed to the role of one of the most iconic supervillains.
“He threw his body around. He was so full. And I went, ‘I’m coming for that. I’m inspired.’ It takes a lot, you feel me? To be inspired.”
Jonathan Majors on Heath Ledger as Joker for his career inspiration
The Joker portrayal by the late actor has become a high bar for the superhero genre. The iconic performance of the 2008 film was one of the many reasons it stands as one of the most beloved films in the genre. Before it was released, the actor died of a drug overdose. He posthumously won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.
Jonathan Majors has not been shy about what The Dark Knight meant to him and his career. In December 2022, he wrote a guest article for Variety about the film. He wrote about the film’s portrayal of good and evil, his experience of it being his first midnight showing, and “what it is to be human.”
Marvel announced the Lovecraft Country actor to be the villain of the third Ant-Man without the notion of how bad he would be in the MCU. Once he had his surprising appearance at the finale of the first season of Loki, comic book fans realized that he is no Ant-Man villain, but an Avengers Big Bad following the defeat of Josh Brolin’s Thanos.
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania will hit theaters on February 17.
