“Made a lot of people angry”: “Walking Dead” star apologizes after surprise departure from Marvel

Harrison Ford, Florence Pugh, David Harbour, Wyatt Russell and and and… The cast of Marvel’s anti-hero blockbuster ‘Thunderbolts’ still makes for a very impressive read. But he should actually be strengthened by another high-profile name: Steven Yeun was originally intended for the role of the powerful Sentry. Many were already looking forward to the MCU debut of the popular actor, who once celebrated his international breakthrough with ‘The Walking Dead’ and has since appeared in exceptional works such as ‘Burning’, ‘Minari’, ‘Nope’ and the critically acclaimed Netflix series “Beef” shone.

But yesterday it became known that Steven Yeun is turning his back on the “Thunderbolts.” It was already said at the time that the many production postponements due to the ongoing Hollywood strikes and further delays at Marvel in 2023 were the cause of this. And Yeun actually confirmed this in an official statement:

“The time that has passed and the things that have changed have basically forced me to leave.”Yeun told the industry publication . “But Jake will do a great job.” This concerns director Jake Schreier, who has already directed Yeun in several episodes of ‘Beef’.

Will we see Steven Yeun in the MCU again?

“Thunderbolts” would have been an even bigger “beef” reunion for the Oscar-nominated star, as series creator Lee Sung Jin is working on the current script (after “Black Widow” author Eric Pearson already submitted a first draft ). But unfortunately nothing comes of it, for which Steven Yeun has apparently sincerely apologized to those responsible for the MCU project: “It took many draft emails to make sure I could properly convey how sorry I was.”Yeun said.

But even though the actor is no longer involved with ‘Thunderbolts’, it’s not out of the question that we’ll see him in the MCU at some point. “I want to make a Marvel movie”he emphasized again in his current conversation . However, it’s still too early to say what kind of Marvel project he’d like to be a part of, as he says he’s probably angered too many people with his departure. and would therefore be happy if he could still participate. “I have a few ideas. But I heard that if you spread it out there, nothing will ever come of it, so I’ll keep it to myself for now.

“Lightning strikes“ – without Steven Yeun, but with the return of numerous MCU anti-heroes and ex-villains – is currently set to premiere in German cinemas on July 23, 2025. Filming is expected to begin in spring 2024, after pre-production was halted in May 2023 due to the aforementioned strikes.