After rumors did the rounds online, we got official word that Steven Yeun would no longer appear in Marvel Studios' Thunderbolts* movie back in January, with Top Gun: Maverick and Salem's Lot actor Lewis Pullman signing on as his replace net shortly after.
Though the character Yeun was going to play still hasn't been confirmed, The Walking Dead and Invincible creator Kirkman came right out and said: "My good friend Steven Yeun is playing the Sentry in a movie" some time later.
“Yeah, he called me, he went in for a costume fitting. I hope I’m not… I don’t think this is a spoiler or anything that will get anybody in trouble. I don’t know, maybe. We’ll see. I don’t care. I don’t work for Marvel. What are they going to do to me? He called me and he said, 'I just came back from a costume fitting for the Sentry. I guess I only do superheroes that are yellow and blue.' He said he was at the costume fitting and was like, 'Aww, crap. I forgot Invincible was yellow and blue.'"
Yeun has never gone into too much detail about why he decided to part ways with the movie, but did cite the Hollywood strikes as one of his reasons.
“I think for me, time passing and things shifting kind of pulled me out of it,” Yeun explained in a recent interview. “But Jake [Schreier], I know, is going to do an incredible job.”
“I wanna do a Marvel movie,” he added.
Well, he might still get his chance, because MTTSH is reporting that Yeun is now in talks with Marvel Studios to play another MCU character. We have no idea which role he might be up for, however.
We recently got our first glimpse of Pullman's take on "Bob" in the leaked Thunderbolts* trailer, and the studio has since released an official look at the rest of the team in a montage clip celebrating 85 years of Marvel.
Olga Kurylenko - who will reprise her Black Widow role as Taskmaster - was asked about that mysterious asterisk that was added to the Thunderbolts* title during a recent interview with Screen Rant, and while she chose her words carefully, the actress did confirm that the project has undergone some changes since it was first announced.
"Well, they changed a couple of things. [Laughs] That's all I can say, but that also doesn't say anything, because obviously every movie is different, and in every movie, things change. But yeah, it will be different, we'll see. There's nothing I can say."
We figured the most likely explanation would be Thunderbolts* ultimately being revealed as a completely different movie (Dark Avengers, for example), but if this is the case, Marvel clearly intends to keep a lid on it for as long as possible.
Thunderbolts* is currently set to be released in theaters on May 2, 2025.