Steven Yeun Exits Thunderbolts Project
We’ve got a legitimate shocker in the Marvel Cinematic Universe today.
An actor whom Disney never officially confirmed was in Thunderbolts is longer starring in the film.
Here’s what we know about Steven Yeun exiting the Thunderbolts project.
The Unconfirmed Lead
Steven Yeun earned an Academy Award nomination in 2021 for his work in Minari.
Long before then, audiences had fallen in love with Yeun for his scene-stealing work as Glenn on The Walking Dead.
In fact, when the show introduced its most famous villain, Negan, it weaponized Glenn’s popularity. When Negan killed Glenn, everyone instantly despised the show’s new Big Bad.
Ordinarily, when an actor leaves a series like that, it’s horrible for their career. For Yeun, the opposite proved true.
In fact, he is up for an Emmy Award this week for his work in the Netflix limited series Beef.
Marvel had intended Yeun to portray an unnamed but seminal character in Thunderbolts.
Those of you who read MarvelBlog know that it’s The Sentry. While Disney never confirmed this piece of news, somebody else did.
During a livestream, Robert Kirkman, the creator of The Walking Dead, let it slip that Yeun would portray The Sentry in Thunderbolts.
The role is Marvel’s equivalent to Superman in that The Sentry is the most powerful human ever.
Yeun’s casting struck many as interesting in that he’s among the most popular actors in Hollywood, but he’s small in stature. And The Sentry makes Thor look like Loki.
Marvel planned to follow the same playbook as with Mark Ruffalo’s Hulk and allow an incredible actor to steal scenes with his charisma, drawing focus away from his (lack of) size.
Alas, that’s no longer an issue because The Hollywood Reporter broke the story overnight that Yeun has left the Thunderbolts project.
What Happened, and What Happens Now?
To date, nobody on either side of this matter has indicated whether the choice was Yeun’s or Marvel’s.
As a reminder, the Hollywood strikes have wreaked havoc with upcoming production schedules.
The most popular working actors have a backlog of jobs lined up. So, this might be a scheduling issue with the in-demand Yeun.
Conversely, Marvel might have chosen to go in a different direction with The Sentry or maybe even the entire plot of Thunderbolts.
Filming on this project won’t begin until later in 2024. So, nothing was set in stone here.
Marvel has definitely reconfigured some of its 2023 plans during the strike-related downtime. So, this announcement raises more questions than it answers.
What we do know is that Marvel has confirmed the return of popular MCU characters like Bucky Barnes, Yelena Belova, Taskmaster, Red Guardian, and Ghost.
Harrison Ford has also signed up for the project. He’ll play Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross, a presumed antagonist for this team of Marvel antiheroes.
Then again, given Ross’s nickname, the Thunderbolts might be a team he brings together. We’re still in wait-and-see mode on a lot of this stuff.
Much of what insiders thought they knew about Marvel’s plans changed due to recent events, including the termination of Jonathan Majors as Kang.
You can safely expect an avalanche of new Marvel updates during the first half of 2024 in preparation for the start of principal photography on Fantastic Four and Thunderbolts.
Currently, Thunderbolts lists a summer 2025 release date. I know that Disney really wants to hold that date, but the odds just went down with Yeun’s exit.
Stay tuned, everyone!
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Feature Photo: Marvel