Steve Yeun confirms he's no longer part of Thunderbolts, but still wants to put on a Marvel superhero suit
He's stuck as Invincible for now.
The rumors are true: Steve Yeun has backed out of Marvel Studios' Thunderbolts, but still wants to join the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Unconfirmed (but solid) reports about the actor joining the MCU with a key role as Sentry in the upcoming Thunderbolts movie - the next crossover event of sorts from Marvel Studios - had been swirling for a while, and now we know they were largely true, but the news is bad.
Only a couple of days ago, insider Daniel Richtman claimed Yeun had tried on his Sentry suit and that it looked awesome. Shortly afterwards, however, whispers of the actor dropping out of the project because of scheduling issues started popping up.
Now, Variety has confirmed the sad news by talking to Yeun himself. "I think for me, time passing and things shifting kind of pulled me out of it," the actor said, "but Jake [Schreier], I know is going to do an incredible job...I wanna do a Marvel movie."
Yeun is currently one of the most sought-after actors in Hollywood, and he's already playing a superhero in the ongoing Invincible animated series by Amazon. Moreover, he'd worked with Thunderbolts director Jake Schreier before on the critically acclaimed Netflix series Beef, so something potentially great could've come out of this. It remains to be seen who will pick up the Sentry mantle, which could be one of the biggest additions to the MCU's ever-growing roster of superheroes in recent memory, as the character is one of the universe's most powerful individuals.
Thunderbolts will bring together a group of anti-heroes with specific skillsets, but the scuttlebutt suggests Sentry may play more of an antagonistic part in the story. The cast includes Wyatt Russell as John Walker aka US Agent, Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, Florence Pugh as Yelena Belova, David Harbour as Alexei Shostakov aka Red Guardian, Olga Kurylenko as Taskmaster, Hannah John-Kamen as Ghost, and Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes.
Ayo Edebiri, of The Bear fame, is reportedly part of the ensemble too.