Steven Yeun Reveals Why He Left Marvel And Bailed On Thunderbolts
The recent news that Steven Yeun dropped out of the Marvel film Thunderbolts was very disappointing. While some people might have assumed the quality of the project or the current lack of interest in the MCU could have contributed to his decision, Yeun claims the real reason is scheduling conflicts.
Yeun recently revealed his reasoning to Variety, saying, “I think for me, time passing and things shifting kind of pulled me out of it,” adding, “But [director] Jake [Schreier], I know, is going to do an incredible job…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.”
It seems like Steven Yeun was even pretty reluctant to leave the Marvel project, which at least bodes well that the project could be an exciting entry to the MCU. Still, it’s pretty disappointing that we won’t get to see Yeun play the dual-natured character Sentry. Sentry is one of the most powerful characters in the comics, and his dark side, called the Void, sometimes takes over his personality, making him both an incredible hero when he’s the Sentry and an incredibly fearsome villain when he’s the Void.
Undoubtedly, the Void would have been the villain that the anti-hero Thunderbolts team would have been facing off against. The team, which includes Yelena Belova, Red Guardian, Bucky Barnes, Ghost, Taskmaster, and US Agent, would have certainly had their hands full with a villain like Sentry/Void. And Steven Yeun would have been a great addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, especially when you consider that he likely would have continued to play the character in future projects.
While it’s disappointing that Steven Yeun won’t be playing Sentry, it appears that he’s more than willing to play a different MCU role in the future if Marvel will have him. In the same interview, Yeun said, “I wanna do a Marvel movie….I think it’s too early to say that,” adding, “I probably pissed off too many people leaving, so I’m just gonna say, ‘Thank you for having me….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.” Even if Marvel is a bit upset with Yeun right now, they would straight up be ignoring fan demand if they don’t bring him back for a different role.
Steven Yeun has been on a hot streak of incredible projects lately, with last year’s Beef being one of the shows of the year and his film Minari netting him a Best Actor nomination at the Oscars in 2020. He also is the lead of the amazing animated superhero show Invincible, which aired the first half of its second season at the end of 2023. We should be seeing the second half of the season in 2024.
The good news is that Steven Yeun is at least down to play a Marvel role in the future, so hopefully, they’ll find a way to get him a big role in a different film. In the meantime, you can check out Yeun in Invincible on Amazon Prime Video and in Beef on Netflix. Thunderbolts, as long as it doesn’t get delayed again, is set to come out in theaters in July 2025.
Source: Variety
