Posted in: Marvel Studios, Movies | Tagged: Steven Yeun, thunderbolts

Thunderbolts Loses Star Steven Yeun Due To Strike Delays

A new report says that Invincible star Steven Yeun is no longer starring in Marvel's Thunderbolts due to the strikes causing delays in production.

During the summer, studios had a hard time deciding whether or not actors and writers were worth paying livable wages to, and because of that, two strikes occurred. Those strikes eventually got both the writers and actors improved deals, but they did throw shooting and release schedules into chaos. There were a lot of delays, and movies shifted a few months here and there, much like we saw in the early days of COVID-19. Thankfully, the strikes didn't last as long as the pandemic and didn't kill anyone, but the schedule disruption has ripple effects. In the case of Thunderbolts, it means scheduling conflicts.

The Walking Dead alumni and Invincible star Steven Yeun was never actually confirmed by anyone at Marvel to be in the film, but it seemed like a done deal. We even got word about who he would be playing. However, Yeun is a busy man, and with Thunderbolts only just starting production this year, it looks like it must be brushing up against other commitments because, according to The Hollywood Reporter, Yeun is no longer in the film. There aren't any reports about who is in line to replace him or if the role he was playing, reportedly Sentry, is something that will be written out of the film.

For those unfamiliar with the concept of Thunderbolts, it is very similar to the Suicide Squad over at DC in that it is a group usually made of bad guys or at least morally ambiguous characters. There are quite a few of those floating around in the MCU right now, and the cast is promising to bring back some familiar faces from previous films for some good old-fashioned team dynamics, which we love to see. Marvel fans are a little more on edge these days, but we can hope the reception of shows and movies this year is enough for Marvel and Disney to realize that you can't rely on brand recognition alone and still have to release good movies. Mediocre isn't good enough when you ask people to show up to theaters multiple times a year, and we're all broke as a joke.

Thunderbolts: Summary, Cast List, Release Date

In June of 2022, we learned that a Thunderbolts project was in the works, and the news was confirmed at the conventions later in the year. At the D23 Expo, we learned the lineup for the movie would include Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), U.S. Agent (Wyatt Russell), Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), Red Guardian (David Harbour), and Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko). The cast also reportedly includes Harrison Ford as Thaddeus' Thunderbolt' Boss and The Bear breakout star Ayo Edebiri. Jake Schreier is directing the movie from a script by Eric Pearson. Thunderbolts was initially set to start production this year but had to stop due to the ongoing WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes because studios like Disney refuse to give writers and actors livable wages. Due to the production halt, Thunderbolts also had its release date delayed from July 26, 2024, to December 20, 2024, and again to July 25, 2025.

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