Steven Yeun Quits Huge Acting Job Over Email

Actor Steven Yeun was slated to star in the upcoming Marvel film Thunderbolts, but last week insiders said that Yeun has quit the project abruptly. Yeun spoke about the situation himself on Wednesday, telling Variety that there was a scheduling issue with the project and even revealing that he quit via email. Still, he said that wants to find his way into the Marvel Cinematic Universe eventually.

"I think for me, time passing and things shifting kind of pulled me out of it," Yeun said. "But [director] Jake [Schreier], I know, is going to do an incredible job. I want to do a Marvel movie." Speaking about the difficult decision to leave the project, Yeun said: "It took a lot of drafts on email to make sure that I conveyed the sincerity of how sorry I was to have to back out."

Thunderbolts was originally slated for release in the summer of 2024 but has now been moved to 2025 because of delays during the Hollywood labor strikes. At D23 2023, Disney announced that the movie would star Florence Pugh, Sebastian Stan, David Harbour, Wyatt Russell and Julia Louis-Dreyfus. Yeun was never formally announced, though many reliable reports mentioned his involvement. His former Walking Dead collaborator Robert Kirkman even mentioned the project during a livestream in November, revealing that Yeun would have played the character Sentry.

There's no telling who will play Sentry now, and it's not clear if, when or how Yeun will find his way into the MCU. When asked which character he'd like to play, Yeun said: "I think it's too early to say that. I probably pissed off too many people leaving, so I'm just gonna say, 'Thank you for having me.'" Yeun added: "I have some ideas, but I heard if you put it out there, you'll never get it, so I'll keep it close to my chest."

The Thunderbolts are a team of antiheroes first introduced in Marvel Comics in 1997. They represented themselves as a team of heroes stepping up to help the world, but were eventually revealed to be a group of villains in disguise. However, as the group developed and changed members, they took on a more ambiguous alignment, sometimes working to serve the greater good.

The MCU version will obviously include a lot of actors and characters who have already been introduced to this franchise – Pugh as the new Black Widow, Harbour as Red Guardian, Stan as the Winter Soldier and Louis-Dreyfus as Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine.

Thunderbolts is now slated for release on July 25, 2025. It is currently in pre-production as far as we know. Yeun's next upcoming movie is called Love Me, and it premieres in July at the Sundance Film Festival.