While never officially confirmed by Marvel, it sure seemed as if Steven Yeun was set to play the Sentry in Marvel's Thunderbolts film.
Deadline Hollywood reported that Yeun had joined the intriguing MCU project back in February 2023, in a mystery role that was said to have larger implications for the MCU that extended well past the film.
A few months later, Yeun commented on his reason for joining the MCU, stating, "I think it’s less about now checking things off a bucket list and more looking at an experience. It’s more like ‘Do I want to experience that?’ Putting it out is a whole other thing that I’m gonna have to prepare for afterwards, but in the immediate, I’m just down to just experience that experience."
Walking Dead comic book creator Robert Kirkman "inadvertently" let the details slip on who Yeun was portraying in Thunderbolts, in November. And then of course, Yeun departed the project just a few days ago, citing "scheduling conflicts."
Interestingly enough, just a few days ago Yeun was confirmed to be filming a small, indie romance film from director Lee Isaac Chung [via Indie Wire]. Aside from recording lines for new episodes of Invincible, there's no other projects that Yeun is attached to at the moment.
He's co-starring in the upcoming sci-fi epic Mickey 17, alongside Robert Pattinson but that film already wrapped production and is set to hit theaters in March.
Yeun cited the SAG-AFTRA and WGA strike and resulting delays as the reason for why he backed out of Thunderbolts in an interview with Variety.
"I think for me, time passing and things shifting kind of pulled me out of it," he explained. "But Jake [Schreier], I know, is going to do an incredible job. I wanna do a Marvel movie 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."
Also, Yeun and Lee Isaac Chung previously collaborated on 2020's Minari, a film that raised Yeun's profile and saw him nominated for Best Actor at the 93rd Oscars. While a Marvel movie likely brings a bigger payday, the prospect of reuniting with a director that secured you an Oscar nomination likely played a big factor in Yeun's decision.
Thunderbolts is currently slated to hit theaters on July 25, 2025. Per US agent actor Wyatt Russell, filming is slated to start in Spring 2024.
Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), U.S. Agent (Wyatt Russell), Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), Red Guardian (David Harbour), and Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko) are confirmed Thunderbolts members.
Ayo Edebiri has an unspecified role, and Harrison Ford's Thunderbolt Ross is also set to appear.
The project reunites the creative team behind Netflix's Emmy and Golden Globe-nominated drama Beef, with Jake Schreier directing from a script co-written by the series' creator, Sung "Sonny" Jin Lee. Sonny revised a script previously written by Black Widow screenwriter Eric Pearson.