Bad news for Marvel’s Thunderbolts movie, which has already faced delays due to the actors’ and writers’ strikes. Actor Steven Yeun has dropped out of the antiheroes film, after joining back in February, quickly followed by his Beef writer Lee Sun Jing.
Rumors about Yeun’s exit had begun to spread yesterday, but it’s THR who have the confirmation. As for why, the answer is pretty clear. Delays on Thunderbolts had to have been taxing on Yeun’s schedule, as he is in very high-demand right now. Clearly there was a breaking point and he had to leave. Yeun earned an Oscar nomination recently for his performance in Minari, as well as an Emmy nominee for Beef.
While it was never confirmed, Yeun was expected to play Sentry (Robert Kirkman admitted as much), a powerhouse Marvel character who was designed to be like their version of Superman. Gifted with the power of “one million exploding suns”, Sentry’s memories were repressed so as to keep hidden his evil dark side, known as The Void.
Thunderbolts is to be directed by Jake Schreier, also a director on Beef, so the Yeun connection ran pretty deep until now. Anyway, the film has Harrison Ford taking over the General Thunderbolt Ross role once played by the late William Hurt. Ross, who will be elevated to President of the United States, puts together his own Avengers-style superteam. But this group is more like the Suicide Squad, comprised of villains and antiheroes looking for lenient sentences.
Sebastian Stan is back as Bucky Barnes aka Winter Solder, joined by Hannah John-Kamen as Ghost, Wyatt Russell as John Walker aka USAgent, Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, Florence Pugh as Yelena Belova aka Black Widow, David Harbour as Red Guardian, Olga Kurylenko as Taskmaster, and Ayo Edibiri in an undisclosed role.
