Thunderbolts Star Steven Yeun Talks Joining the MCU & Teases His ‘Really Interesting’ Role

Summary

• Steven Yeun was originally set to join the MCU in the Thunderbolts movie but has reportedly left the project.
• Delays caused by the 2023 writers’ and actors’ strikes could be a reason for Yeun’s departure and the push back in filming and release date.
• Yeun teased his role in Thunderbolts and hinted that it would be a major and interesting character to explore. The hot rumor was that he would play Marvel’s version of Superman, Sentry.

Beef and The Walking Dead star Steven Yeun was originally set to joing the MCU in the upcoming Thunderbolts movie. However, it seems that despite the actor originally being incredibly enthusiastic about joining the franchise, it was reported today that Yeun is believed to have left the project.

As per The Hollywood Reporter, Yeun has parted ways with the movie. While there has been no specific reason given, the delays caused by the writers’ and actors’ strikes in 2023 could be one of the reasons, with Thunderbolts having been given a big push back in filming and its release date. The movie was originally set to be released in July 2024, but was subseqeuntly delayed a year to July 2025, and filming is yet to get underway.

Previously, Yeun teased his upcoming role in the movie back in June. At the time, he shared how his casting came about with The Hollywood Reporter, explaining why he decided to add his name to the Marvel roster and hinting that his role in Thunderbolts was set to be a major one.

It kind of came together in a weird way. Jake Schreier, who did episodes of Beef, he got the gig to direct it. He kind of saw me for this role. I read the role and I was like, ‘This is actually a really interesting role. I’d be down to explore this.’

While it was not been confirmed in any official capacity at the time, the hot rumor circulating about Yeun’s role in Thunderbolts was that he would portray Marvel’s version of Superman, Sentry. An all-powerful superhero who suffers from dissociative identity disorder and therefore has two psyches living inside his head – one being the benevolent superhero Sentry and the other being the hostile supervillain Void, playing Sentry would certainly be “interesting” and give the actor a lot to “explore.”

Yeun has teased the intrigue of the character he will play in Thunderbolts before saying, “I don’t know if it was explicitly on my bucket list, it was more the story, getting to work with Jake Schreier again, who directed Beef, and what his intentions were. The intentions of the particular character that they wanted me to play were very clear, and that’s what drew me to the film.”

RELATED: Julia Louis-Dreyfus Teases Expanded Role for Val in Upcoming Thunderbolts Movie

Thunderbolts Hit Pause Amid theWriters Strike

Marvel Studios

Thunderbolts will come as part of Phase Five of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and will follow the titular group of heroes and antiheroes. A group that includes Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), U.S. Agent (Wyatt Russell), Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), Red Guardian (David Harbour), and Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko).

While filming had been scheduled to begin, production on Thunderbolts was paused amid the ongoing Writers Guild of America strike. The big screen outing was not the only MCU project to halt production, with the likes of the Disney+ series Wonder Man starring Aquaman’s Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and the reboot of Blade also stopping until the writers’ strike, and the subsequent actors’ strike, came to an end.

Alongside Thunderbolts, the rest of Phase Five of the MCU includes the recent sequels Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 and The Marvels, as well as Captain America: New World Order, and Blade on the big screen, with the likes of Secret Invasion, Loki season two, Echo, the second season of What If…?, Agatha: Coven of Chaos, and Daredevil: Born Again expanding the comic book movie franchise on the small screen.

Directed by Jake Schreier and written by Eric Pearson and Lee Sung Jin, Thunderbolts is currently scheduled to land in theaters in July 2025 as part of Phase Five of the MCU.

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