'Creed III' star Jonathan Majors arrested in New York on assault charges

Actor Jonathan Majors was arrested in New York City at the weekend on assault and harassment charges, leading to the US Army pulling new advertisements featuring the Creed III star.

Majors, who recently presented an award at the Oscars with his Creed III co-star Michael B Jordan, was arrested on Saturday in Manhattan after a domestic dispute, according to police and his defence lawyer.

A 30-year-old woman suffered minor injuries to her head and neck and was taken to hospital in stable condition, the New York Police Department said. Majors, 33, appeared in court for an arraignment later on Saturday and was released without bail.

He was charged in a criminal complaint of striking the woman's face with his open hand, causing a laceration behind her ear, and of grabbing her hand and neck, causing bruising.

Priya Chaudhry, Majors' defence lawyer, said Majors was innocent and was “provably the victim of an altercation with a woman he knows”.

She said the episode occurred in a vehicle and the driver who witnessed it would help exonerate Majors. She also said the woman, who has not been publicly named, had provided two written statements “recanting these allegations”.

The US Army said it was temporarily pulling new campaign advertisements featuring Majors.

“While Majors is innocent until proven guilty, prudence dictates that we pull our ads until the investigation into these allegations is complete,” Laura DeFrancisco, a spokesperson for the Army Enterprise Marketing Office, said.

Majors rose to fame in the 2019 film The Last Black Man in San Francisco and appeared in Marvel's Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, released this year.