Jonathan Majors will lead a feature film for the first time since he was found guilty of assaulting and harassing his girlfriend, a conviction that doomed a lucrative contract with Marvel Studios and imperiled his status as one of the fastest-rising stars in Hollywood.
Mr. Majors, who starred in “Creed III” and “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” last year, has been cast in “Merciless,” a supernatural thriller about a C.I.A. interrogator out for revenge. The movie will be directed by Martin Villeneuve and produced by Christopher Tuffin, an executive producer of the films “Sound of Freedom” and “Peppermint.”
Mr. Tuffin said he believed in second chances and had decided to work with Mr. Majors because he was a “generational talent.”
“We live in a culture that treats people as disposable, on both sides,” he said. “I believe that this matter has been adjudicated in the courts and he has a right to go back to his career.”
A representative for Mr. Majors declined to comment.
Mr. Majors was convicted of a reckless assault misdemeanor and a harassment violation in December, months after an altercation inside an S.U.V. that his girlfriend Grace Jabbari said turned violent. He was acquitted of two other charges that required prosecutors to prove he had acted with intent.
A judge sentenced Mr. Majors to 52 weeks of domestic violence programming.
In court testimony, Ms. Jabbari said she and Mr. Majors had gotten into an argument in Manhattan while they were dating. She said that he had twisted her arm and that she subsequently felt “a really hard blow across my head.” Mr. Majors did not testify but through his lawyer and in an interview on “Good Morning America,” he disputed Ms. Jabbari’s account and denied assaulting her.
Ms. Jabbari filed a lawsuit in March that accused Mr. Majors of defamation and assault, saying he was violent toward her in several cities and repeatedly made threats to kill her. His lawyer, Priya Chaudhry, said then that he was preparing counterclaims, which have not been filed.
After his conviction, Marvel Studios quickly announced that it would part ways with Mr. Majors, who had appeared in “Quantumania” and two seasons of the television show “Loki.” He was set to play the lead villain in “Avengers: The Kang Dynasty,” which was meant to restart the franchise.
“Magazine Dreams,” a bodybuilding drama starring Mr. Majors that won praise at the Sundance Film Festival, was also shelved by Searchlight Pictures.
The day after Deadline reported that Mr. Majors was cast in “Merciless,” he made a rare public appearance on Friday at the Hollywood Unlocked Impact Awards in Beverly Hills, where he was honored with the digital media company’s Perseverance Award.
During a tearful 15-minute speech in which Mr. Majors talked about persevering through injustice, he described fighting through a period of darkness in his life.
“I’ve sat in that pitch black,” he said, “and what I’ve learned is that when you catch a glimpse of light, you run as hard and as fast as you can toward it.”
