Tuesday saw the news that Steven Yeun has exited Marvel’s Thunderbolts movie and won’t be playing The Sentry in the MCU.
Per Robert Kirkman, we know Yeun participated in a costume test in November, so something changed from November to January, apparently.
The actors and the writers strike was already over by then; however, the trades and Yeun are blaming the strikes for the reason for his Marvel exit.
Checking Steven Yeun’s IMDb shows the actor has a wide-open schedule.
What did Steven Yeun say?
Variety caught up with Yeun at an event on Wednesday night where it’s said Yeun spoke to Variety about his exit and that he cited last year’s SAG-AFTRA strike as one reason behind his decision to drop out of the Thunderbolts movie.
“I think for me, time passing and things shifting kind of pulled me out of it,” Yeun explained. “But Jake [Schreier], I know, is going to do an incredible job [directing].”
Wyatt Russell recently said Thunderbolts starts filming in March or April but nothing has been officially announced.
“I wanna do a Marvel movie,” Yeun added. “It took a lot of drafts on email to make sure that I conveyed the sincerity of how sorry I was to have to back out.”
Steven Yeun was also asked what Marvel movie he would like to work on in the future.
“I think it’s too early to say that. I probably pissed off too many people leaving, so I’m just gonna say, ‘Thank you for having me,’” said Yeun adding, “I have some ideas. But I heard if you put it out there, you’ll never get it, so I’ll keep it close to my chest.”
Thunderbolts recently shifted its release date from Dec. 20, 2024 to July 25, 2025.
What do rumors say happened?
One theory out and about is that Steven Yeun might be instead starring in the new Jordan Peele movie, as Yeun starred in Peel’s Nope.
“I do feel like my next project is clear to me, and I’m psyched that I have another film that, you know, could be my favorite movie if I make it right,” Peele told Conan O’Brien.
Another theory out there is that while trying on the costume, Yeun responded, “Oh, shit!” while telling Robert Kirkman about it, realizing it’s the same colors as Invincible, as he voices the character for Kirkman’s Prime Video animated series.
Marvel hasn’t been doing all that hot as of late, so it could be possible that Steven Yeun finally got a chance to read the script with the strike over and didn’t like it.
Another possibility is that he might not have wanted to face fan backlash as he looks nothing like the character from the comics. Disney has been pushing its woke agenda into Marvel, which has bombed completely, so Yeun might not have wanted to go down that road.
Still, another reason could be that he would basically be playing an evil version of Superman to an extent, and The Boys, another Amazon Prime Video show, is already doing it and probably much better with Antony Starr as Homelander.
Rumors have also offered Thunderbolts isn’t going to happen and will eventually be canceled.
If Marvel does stick with The Sentry, maybe Ryan Gosling will get cast in the role who has been said to recently be in talks with Marvel.
