The 'Rustin' star spoke exclusively with ET backstage at the Palm Springs International Film Festival Awards Gala.
Colman Domingo has been vocal about his desire to someday join the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but he's not sure about the speculation that he's replacing Jonathan Majors after Disney and Marvel Studios cut ties with the actor last month.
ET's Denny Directo spoke with Domingo backstage at the 35th annual Palm Springs International Film Festival Awards Gala on Thursday night, hosted by Mary Hart.
The 54-year-old has been drawing acclaim for his work in Rustin, Netflix's George C. Wolfe-directed biopic on legendary activist Bayard Rustin, and The Color Purple, the Blitz Bazawule-directed reimaging of the story made iconic in the 1982 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Alice Walker, the 1985 Warner Bros. Pictures film and the Tony Award-winning stage musical.
Now the Emmy winner is the subject of comic book movie rumors after writer Daniel Richtman claimed that Marvel Studios is circling Domingo to step in as their Kang the Conqueror portrayer in upcoming films. "Still early days but I hear Colman Domingo is one option that was brought up to replace Jonathan Majors as Kang," Richtman alleged.
But Domingo tells that he doesn't know how much truth there is to that reporting since he hasn't heard from the studio directly. "I don't know, I'm always looking at what I have to do right now... I know there's talk and conversations around, and I don't know how much is true," he admits. "I don't even get that from my team, I can't tell if it's true or not."
Still, the actor says that he's honored to have his name thrown into the ring and received positively among fans.
"The fans are passionate," he adds. "Somehow my name is out there in the world [and] I like the idea of just having your name called and someone speaking lovingly and kindly about something is a beautiful thing."
Majors, 34, rose to stardom after appearing as Kang the Conqueror in Marvel's Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and earned critical acclaim after playing the role of Damian "Diamond Dame" Anderson in Michael B. Jordan's Creed III.
But in the wake of abuse allegations stemming from his March 25 arrest, Majors faced swift media fallout. The U.S. Army soon pulled the plug on its two ads featuring the Marvel star, and his management team dropped him.
After two weeks of agonizing testimony in a Manhattan courtroom, the verdict returned one guilty count of assault and one guilty count of harassment stemming from an incident involving Majors' ex-girlfriend, Grace Jabbari. He was acquitted of two other counts in a split verdict -- he was found not guilty on one count of intentional assault in the third degree and aggravated harassment in the second degree. The jury deliberated for about five hours over the course of three days.
Majors is scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 6 and he faces up to a year in jail.
Almost immediately following his conviction, Disney and Marvel Studios severed ties with him, and his rise as a major player in the Marvel Cinematic Universe seemingly came to a screeching halt. Majors had previously been attached to star in Avengers: The Kang Dynasty (2026) and Avengers: Secret Wars (2027).
Instead, the film studio has since taken Avengers: Kang Dynasty off its slate and replaced it with Avengers 5. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Marvel "intends to move forward with the film" but with a different direction. Loki's Michael Waldron is now attached to the anticipated Avengers movie.
In a 2022 interview with AwardsWatch, Domingo shared his enthusiasm to join the MCU, saying, "When it comes to Marvel and DC, I'm like, 'I think I'm ready now.' I'm worked out, fit, I think I want to play a villain. I just want to be the villain. I don't want to be the good guy. I actually want to do some really nasty, dirty work."
Until he gets confirmation from Kevin Feige himself, Domingo is basking in the reception for his recent work, which earned him the Spotlight Award at this year's PSIFF.
"It feels incredible. I mean, I keep hearing people keep saying it's my year, and I feel like I'm taking it in," Domingo tells ET. "It feels like, I don't know, like many years of work and people amplifying it and saying they're proud. I feel this for every journey. Everybody has been doing their work for many years and sometimes were unsung, and now it seems like the lights are all on me and it's like, it's not only for me, it's for my comrades. It's for everybody, you know?"
He adds: "It makes it absolutely sweeter. It really does, because me being here has taken 33 years of work and work when no one's watching. Building work and creating work when there wasn't work. And so, I know that this is like, it's an accomplishment to let people know that [they can] keep a good work ethic, stay in it, keep doing it, stay whole, hold tight to your dreams and make them a reality. Create for yourself, create opportunities for others and you know, perhaps this is for you too."
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