X-Men Director On Potentially Enlisting Steven Yeun: "I Would Never Not Be Looking For Places To [Cast Him]"

X-Men Director On Potentially Enlisting Steven Yeun: "I Would Never Not Be Looking For Places To [Cast Him]"

X-Men director Jake Schreier discusses the possibility of bringing Steven Yeun into the MCU fold after the Invincible star missed out on playing the Sentry in Thunderbolts*...

By MarkCassidy - Apr 12, 2026 10:04 AM EST
Filed Under: Thunderbolts

Thunderbolts* director Jake Schreier originally cast Steven Yeun as the Sentry in the Marvel Studios movie after working with him on Netflix's Beef, but The Walking Dead alum was forced to part ways with the project due to a scheduling issue, with Lewis Pullman (Salem's Lot) stepping in to take over as "Bob."

Yeun - who voices the titular hero in Prime Video's Invincible series - has previously said that he's open to playing another Marvel Comics character, and Schreier now appears to have hinted that he might have a role for the actor in the upcoming X-Men reboot.

"I love Steven very dearly, and he's one of the very best actors that we have, so, I mean, I would never not be looking for places to [cast him] —but no specifics," the filmmaker tells Movieweb.com.

This doesn't necessarily mean that Schreier will cast Yeun in X-Men, of course, but it's certainly a possibility.

"I would say that we are aiming to do something that feels like a fresh start and going for something that feels new." the director told the site in a previous interview. "And, really, something that Kevin has pushed for is this idea of, 'What can we do within this world?' It's such a massive world, and I've spent the year just rereading a ton of it, like the entire [Chris] Claremont run and so many different ... the great work that Grant Morrison did."

"There's so many different interesting takes within this world -- and that shouldn't be a clue as to anything, that's just for background and just to live in the world and how deep that world is. Just thinking about, 'What are the corners of it? What are the sides of it that maybe haven't been done so brilliantly in so many of these great movies that we can ... [that] were areas that we can explore where it feels like we're doing something new?'"

Schreier recently revealed that his Thunderbolts* scribes Sonny Lee Sung Jin (Beef) and Joanna Calo (The Bear) had come aboard the MCU reboot to write a new draft of Michael Lesslie's script.

We're still waiting for an official cast announcement (SDCC seems likely), but there have been a lot of rumors doing the rounds over the past few months. According to Jeff Sneider on this week's episode of The Hot Mic. Marvel is looking at Odessa A'Zion (I Love LA) to play Rogue and Peter Claffey (A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms) to take on the role of Beast.

Sneider's co-host John Rocha also said he'd heard that the movie will focus on the original team, Cyclops, Jean Grey, Beast, Angel and Iceman.

About The Author:
MarkCassidy
Member Since 11/9/2008
Mark Cassidy is a writer, photographer, amateur filmmaker, and Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic from Dublin, Ireland.
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bobevanz
bobevanz - 4/12/2026, 10:52 AM
Sunfire
Kneeonbrown
Kneeonbrown - 4/12/2026, 11:48 AM
@bobevanz - casting a Korean to play a Japanese character whose costume is the old imperial flag would be ironic at least
soberchimera
soberchimera - 4/12/2026, 1:29 PM
@bobevanz - Naw, get an actor who is actually Japanese like the dude from One Piece.
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dragon316
dragon316 - 4/12/2026, 1:38 PM
@bobevanz - maybe or marvel could race gender swap again race kang , gender swap taskmaster
harryba11zack
harryba11zack - 4/12/2026, 10:54 AM


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joevseveryone
joevseveryone - 4/12/2026, 10:54 AM
Jubilee
Vigor
Vigor - 4/12/2026, 11:10 AM
Im looking fwd to seeing a fully gay Iceman on screen. Wonder who is the lucky guy to be cast for that role
FireGunn
FireGunn - 4/12/2026, 11:16 AM
@Vigor - Why are you excited to see a retcon?
KennKathleen
KennKathleen - 4/12/2026, 11:16 AM
@Vigor - User Comment Image

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FinnFangFoom
FinnFangFoom - 4/12/2026, 12:35 PM
@Vigor -

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Vigor
Vigor - 4/12/2026, 12:35 PM
@FireGunn - it's a good recon, my opinion
FireGunn
FireGunn - 4/12/2026, 12:45 PM
@Vigor - Why?
soberchimera
soberchimera - 4/12/2026, 1:24 PM
@Vigor -
Vigor
Vigor - 4/12/2026, 2:44 PM
@FireGunn - representation. More to him than ice powers and partner of Rogue
FireGunn
FireGunn - 4/12/2026, 3:04 PM
@Vigor - There was more to him before turning him gay as well. A character (and a person) is more than their sexuality
TheDpool
TheDpool - 4/12/2026, 11:24 AM
Nightcrawler? Hes definitely part of the team they've been reading.
deamon
deamon - 4/12/2026, 11:37 AM
@TheDpool - How about Storm?
deamon
deamon - 4/12/2026, 11:38 AM
Don't see him as anybody else than Sunfire. Everything else will be miscast.
JayBarrick
JayBarrick - 4/12/2026, 11:47 AM
If I were Marvel Studios, given it's current state of nostalgia/sinergy fuel that is actually pushing the box office revenue, I'd be looking like crazy at ways to trade rights with Amazon to have Steve Yeun as an Invencible live-action cameo on Secret Wars, and then allowing Amazon to use Spiderman for that cameo that never happened. So sad they didn't though of this.
CAPTAINPINKEYE
CAPTAINPINKEYE - 4/12/2026, 1:18 PM
Perfect Cyclops.
Yetiman
Yetiman - 4/15/2026, 3:07 AM
@CAPTAINPINKEYE - lol
Yetiman
Yetiman - 4/15/2026, 3:07 AM
@CAPTAINPINKEYE - you’re right. Looks just like him
TheVisionary25
TheVisionary25 - 4/12/2026, 1:28 PM
Honestly I can’t really see Steven as any of the X-Men (maybe Cyclops?) but i would love to see him join the MCU in some other role…

I still think he would make a good Mr Negative tbh.

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Astroman
Astroman - 4/12/2026, 1:48 PM
Don’t think he is team leader material. Just never plays characters that would give me confidence he could pull of Cyclops.
ModHaterSLADE
ModHaterSLADE - 4/12/2026, 2:36 PM
If Agents of Atlas ever gets an adaptation I sure hope he's involved.
KiddSoul
KiddSoul - 4/13/2026, 1:17 AM
FANTOMEX!
TheVisionary25
TheVisionary25 - 4/13/2026, 5:47 AM
@KiddSoul - that’s a good choice.
PC04
PC04 - 4/13/2026, 10:29 AM
@KiddSoul - This is great casting!
DocSpock
DocSpock - 4/13/2026, 1:56 AM

They'll probably cast him as Jubilee.

Yetiman
Yetiman - 4/15/2026, 3:06 AM
Why are people saying cyclops? Looks nothing like him in the comics. Cyclops isn’t Asian and cyclops is like 6’2 in the comics. This actor is only 5’7 lol

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