Credit: Marvel StudiosAfter a handful of rumors, Steven Yeun is officially out of the upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe movie Thunderbolts (2025).
Yeun was rumored to star as Sentry in the Phase Five turned Phase Six movie alongside the likes of MCU heavyweight Sebastian Stan (Bucky Barnes) and previous other villains and anti-heroes such as Wyatt Russell’s John Walker/U.S. Agent, Hannah John-Kamen’s Ava Starr/Ghost, Florence Pugh’s Yelena Belova/Black Widow, David Harbour’s Alexei Shostakov/Red Guardian, Olga Kurylenko’s Antonia Dreykov/Taskmaster, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine.
The Walking Dead star became attached to star in Thunderbolts back in February 2023, but it has been relatively quiet on the project throughout 2023. Announced during 2022’s Marvel Studios panel at San Diego Comic-Con, Phase Five’s answer to an Avengers-style movie was well-received. Since, though, Thunderbolts has been pushed into 2025.
Breaking his silence after reports of him quitting Thunderbolts, Yeun told Variety that he still wants to do a Marvel movie. The Minari (2021) star confirmed his exit was due to scheduling conflicts and the aftereffects of the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. “I think for me, time passing and things shifting kind of pulled me out of it. But 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,” Yeun told the outlet. And when asked what part he would want in the future if Marvel were to offer him something new, Yeun said he had probably “pissed” people off and was happy with a “thanks for having me” for now. Although the Nope (2022) actor did tease he had ideas of who he would play in the MCU, but promised those ideas were “close to his chest.”
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Thunderbolts‘ move to 2025 comes after a string of box office failures and oversaturation swept through the franchise. In 2023, both Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and The Marvels bombed at the box office, becoming the worst two offerings in MCU history. The significant shift in audience reception, as well as Disney and Marvel’s own concerns over too much content and quantity over quality, saw Blade, Captain America: Brave New World, and Thunderbolts all shift into 2025. The only MCU film set to release this year is July’s Deadpool movie, starring Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman as Deadpool and Wolverine, respectively.
Thunderbolts will be part of Marvel Phase Six and is directed by Jake Schreier (Paper Towns), with a screenplay by Eric Pearson (Black Widow) and Lee Sung Jin (Beef). Its new release date is scheduled for July 25, 2025.
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With a sparse 2024, just Deadpool 3 for the big screen and Echo and Agatha All Along for the small screen (not including animation), this could be the year that Marvel regains some lost ground when it comes to reliability and audience reception. Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman carry weight with them, so to see the pair onscreen in a film like Deadpool should be a sure win for the studio. Likewise, Echo—which releases on January 9 in one drop–brings both Daredevil (Charlie Cox) and Kingpin (Vincent D’Onofrio) back in the most concrete way since their Netflix days.
After losing the top box office spot in 2023, The Walt Disney Company’s removal of some big titles like Thunderbolts and Captain America: Brave New World puts the House of Mouse at risk of further losing market share, but if quality is up, it may be a risk worth taking.
What are your thoughts on Steven Yeun dropping out of Thunderbolts? Let Inside the Magic know in the comments down below!