Steven Yeun No Longer Part of Marvel’s ‘Thunderbolts’

While the studio had never officially confirmed Yeun’s casting, the actor had talked about it, and the movie is still on track to start shooting in March

Preview:

Steven Yeun has dropped out of Marvel’s ‘Thunderbolts’.
Schedule changes mean he’s no longer in the cast.
Jake Schreier is on board to direct the team-up title.

Bad news for fans of Steven Yeun, and for anyone who was excited to see him join the Marvel Cinematic Universe in 'Thunderbolts.'

Yeun, though never officially confirmed by Marvel, had spoken about joining the film, and, at least according to his old ‘The Walking Dead’ and ‘Invincible’ boss Robert Kirkman (who accidentally spilled the beans on a YouTube Show) had been due to play the character of Sentry.

But now, because of schedule shifts following the strikes this summer, he’s no longer able to appear. The new was broken by twitter account DCULeaks and confirmed by The Hollywood Reporter.

Thunderbolts*

"Careful who you assemble."

Not Yet RatedMay 2nd, 2025

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

Just who are the Thunderbolts?

Marvel Studios' 'Thunderbolts.'

It isn’t an exact match, but the simple way of explaining the Thunderbolts is that they’re 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.

We know (most of) the characters who will be showing up, since they 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’.

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. And ‘The Bear’s Ayo Edebiri is aboard in an unknown role.