Steven Yeun reveals why he pulled out of Marvel’s Thunderbolts, issues statement

Steven Yeun is no longer a contender to be the MCU's Sentry. In the next Thunderbolts film, the Invincible star was cast to play the lead. However, the writers' and actors' strikes caused multiple delays in filming. According to recent reports, Yeun was not pleased with how his character in the film might have developed and opted out of the project due to scheduling issues. While Yeun’s casting as Sentry was never officially announced by the makers, Robert Kirkman, who is also a cast member of Thunderbolts, had unintentionally shared the news on David Finch's YouTube show. 

Steven Yeun issues statement about his Thunderbolts exit

Confirming his Thunderbolts exit Steven Yeun said to Variety, "I think for me, time passing and things shifting kind of pulled me out of it. But Jake, 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." 

Similar to numerous tentpoles, Thunderbolts was impacted by the simultaneous writers' and actors' strikes that occurred in 2022, causing chaos in shooting schedules. Filming for Thunderbolts was also affected. The film, which was first scheduled to release in July 2024, was postponed until July 2025. This is the most recent major casting change after Jonathan Majors' official dismissal from the Kang the Conqueror role.

What do we know about Thunderbolts so far? 

Thunderbolts is being directed by Jake Schreier, the man behind Paper Towns, and written by Lee Sung Jin, the creator of Beef. The cast of the movie comprises Wyatt Russell as John Walker, Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes, David Harbour as Red Guardian, Florence Pugh as Yelena Belova, Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Contessa Valentina Allegra de la Fontaine, and Olga Kurylenko as Taskmaster. The film was originally slated for release on July 26, 2024. However, the release was postponed and rescheduled for July 2025. 

Speaking about Yeun, he remains extremely busy. He is scheduled to star opposite Kristen Stewart in the feature film Love Me and Bong Joon-ho's Mickey 17 later this year. He is also one of the voice actors of the superhero series Invincible, slated to premiere on Prime Video.