Geraldine Viswanathan Replacing Ayo Edebiri in ‘Thunderbolts’

This marks another change for the troubled Marvel team-up movie, which has already lost ‘Beef’s Steven Yeun, with Lewis Pullman in talks to replace him.

Geraldine Viswanathan in 'Drive-Away Dolls.' Credit: Wilson Webb / Working Title / Focus Features.

Preview:

Geraldine Viswanathan is replacing Ayo Edebiri for ‘Thunderbolts’.
This is the latest change for the Marvel movie.
Jake Schreier is on board to direct.

There is another casting change afoot for Marvel’s ‘Thunderbolts’ movie. Having already lost ‘Beef’/‘Minari’ actor to a busy schedule (with ‘Top Gun: Maverick’s Lewis Pullman reportedly making a deal to replace him as the character of Sentry), this time it’s ‘The Bear’s Ayo Edebiri discovering her busy schedule can no longer accommodate the movie’s shoot.

Edebiri, who has become hugely in demand thanks to her award-winning performance on the culinary drama, will be replaced by Geraldine Viswanathan, known for ‘Blockers’ and recent Apple TV+ movie ‘The Beanie Bubble’.

Thunderbolts*

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An irreverent team-up featuring depressed assassin Yelena Belova alongside the MCU’s least anticipated band of misfits. Read the Plot

What is the ‘Thunderbolts’ movie?

Marvel Studios' 'Thunderbolts.'

Though not a 1:1 match, the Thunderbolts are effectively Marvel’s version of The Suicide Squad: a group of villains –– or at least anti-heroes –– brought together by third-party schemers in a possibly ill-advised attempt to turn them into a force for good.

In Marvel’s case, they were originally assembled by Baron Zemo and the Masters Of Evil and have sometimes been linked to Hulk regular General Thaddeus ‘Thunderbolt’ Ross (hence the name). They made their debut in the pages of ‘The Incredible Hulk’ in 1996, introduced by writer and artist team Peter David and Mike Deodato. They continued to their own series the same year, created by Kurt Busiek and Mark Bagley, and have been brought back with a bunch of alternative line-ups in comics ever since.

Who is in the Thunderbolts movie so far?

David Harbour from 'Thunderbolts' at D23 Expo 2022.

The vast majority of the cast were announced back in 2022 at Disney’s D23 event: Bucky Barnes (formerly The Winter Soldier), played by Sebastian Stan, is a key figure alongside Florence Pugh’s Yelena Belova, Olga Kurylenko’s Antonia Dreykov/Taskmaster and David Harbour’s Alexei Shostakov/Red Guardian, those three having been introduced in ‘Black Widow’.

Then there’s John Walker, AKA US Agent, played by Wyatt Russell and first seen in ‘The Falcon and the Winter Soldier’ and Hannah John-Kamen’s Ava Starr, the phasing character known as Ghost, who debuted in ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp’.

Julia Louis-Dreyfus from 'Thunderbolts' at D23 Expo 2022.

As for those overseeing the team, we have Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, AKA Val, played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus, who was also introduced in the ‘Falcon’ series and has since cropped up in the likes of ‘Black Widow’ and ‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’. We also have Thaddeus Ross –– last seen in ‘Black Widow’ and played since ‘The Incredible Hulk’ by William Hurt. But because of the actor’s death in 2022, Marvel has had to recast the role, tapping genre icon Harrison Ford to take over.

Ross is reportedly the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s current President of the US (at least in ‘Captain America: New World Order’) so that’ll likely factor in.

Edebiri had been filling an unknown role, which Viswanathan will take over. Deadline’ s report offers no details as to the part. The actor will next be seen in Ethan Coen’s ‘Drive-Away Dolls’ , due in theaters on February 23rd.

Who is making ‘Thunderbolts’?

Lee Sung Jin, Ali Wong and Steven Yeun attend Netflix's Los Angeles premiere of 'BEEF' at Netflix Tudum Theater on March 30, 2023 in Los Angeles, California.

(L to R) Lee Sung Jin, Ali Wong and Steven Yeun attend Netflix's Los Angeles premiere of 'BEEF' at Netflix Tudum Theater on March 30, 2023 in Los Angeles, California. Photo by Charley Gallay/Getty Images for Netflix.

Jake Schreier (‘Beef’) is directing the film based on a script by Eric Pearson and Lee Sung Jin (the Emmy-winning creator of ‘Beef’).