Steven Yeun's Character In Marvel's Thunderbolts Has Been Revealed (And It's A Weird One)
Those notorious Marvel snipers have been slacking a bit, apparently, based on the volume of leaks that have sprung from the studio lately. To be fair, this latest one comes from something of an unexpected source: "The Walking Dead" creator Robert Kirkman. And the news regarding his "good friend" Steven Yeun, who starred in AMC's hit zombie series for years (and most recently stole the show in the Netflix series "Beef"), suggests that he might very well be playing the villain of the upcoming "Thunderbolts" film.
In a lengthy conversation between Kirkman and comic book artist David Finch (via IGN), Kirkman spilled the beans on which super-powered character Yeun will be playing in the Marvel Cinematic Universe — a role that, up until now, has been kept a mystery. All we knew to this point was that it would be "not only significant to this film but a major role going forward in future films." So leave it to Kirkman to finally raise the curtains a bit:
"My good friend Steven Yeun is playing the Sentry in a movie."
This seems to confirm many of the rumors swirling around Yeun's role, which indicated that he would be playing the alter ego of Marvel character Robert Reynolds. Created in 2000, the Sentry comes with a serious dark side known as the Void, an immensely powerful supervillain so horrifying that he repressed his own memories of this personality and made sure the rest of the world forgot it, too. Historically, the character has appeared in issues along with the New Avengers, the Mighty Avengers, and the Dark Avengers, though he does have run-ins with the Thunderbolts, as well. The film will surely make a few changes along the way, but this is undoubtedly a pretty wild character for Marvel to adapt.
The Sentry vs the Thunderbolts
Make this two super-powered characters draped in hues of yellow and blue for Steven Yeun. Having already joined the animated series "Invincible" to voice the character of Mark Grayson, his casting as the Sentry in "Thunderbolts" will coincidentally turn this color scheme into a bit of a trend for the talented actor. This time, at least, he'll get to show off in live action. While Yeun was flagrantly breaking his NDA and revealing all this to blabbermouth Robert Kirkman (we kid, we kid), he apparently had a pretty funny reaction when he went in for a costume test. According to Kirkman:
"Yeah, [Yeun] called me and he said, 'I just came back from a costume fitting for the Sentry. I guess I only do superheroes that are yellow and blue.' He said he was at the costume fitting and was like, 'Aww, crap. I forgot Invincible was yellow and blue.'"
Happens to the best of us! In any case, Kirkman isn't exactly sweating about leaking state secrets. "I don't think this is a spoiler or anything that will get anybody in trouble. I don't know, maybe. We'll see. I don't care. I don't work for Marvel. What are they going to do to me?"
Setting aside that this probably falls under the definition of "Famous last words," the news adds even more intrigue to "Thunderbolts." The film was pushed back along with a slew of other Marvel delays, and is now scheduled to bring the franchise's new team of antiheroes to the big screen on July 25, 2025. Yeun will be joining a cast that also includes Sebastian Stan, Florence Pugh, David Harbour, Wyatt Russell, Ayo Edebiri, and no less an icon than Harrison Ford.