Steven Yeun Reveals Why He Exited Marvel’s ‘Thunderbolts’

Steven Yeun has opened up about why he dropped out of Marvel’s upcoming adaptation of The Thunderbolts. The Minari Oscar-nominee told fans he hopes to make a Marvel movie at some point, but unfortunately, it won’t be Thunderbolts.

Yeun confirmed to press on the red carpet of Louis Vuitton’s West Hollywood pop-up on Wednesday that a production delay, caused by last summer’s dueling industry strikes, affected his ability to appear in the film. Thunderbolts is currently set to be directed by Jake Schreier (Paper Towns), with a script by Beef creator Lee Sung Jin.

“I think for me, time passing and things shifting kind of pulled me out of it,” Yeun conceded. “But Jake, I know, is going to do an incredible job.”

It seems that while Yeun desperately wants to work for the studio, the myriad of production difficulties on Thunderbolts gave him pause. “I wanna do a Marvel movie,” the actor clarified. “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.”

When asked what Marvel property he’d like to headline, Yeun deflected. “I think it’s too early to say that,” he said. “I probably pissed off too many people leaving, so I’m just gonna say, ‘Thank you for having me.'”

“I have some ideas,” Yeun continued. “But I heard if you put it out there, you’ll never get it, so I’ll keep it close to my chest.”

Yeun’s Thunderbolts exit is the latest blow for the once-unstoppable studio, which weathered its worst year yet in 2023. Their most recent big-screen release, The Marvels, flopped at the box office, grossing the lowest amount of any Marvel film to date. Just a few weeks later, plans for upcoming Avengers sequels were thrown into uncertainty by the firing of embattled actor Jonathan Majors after he was found guilty of assault and harassment.