Oscar-nominated actor Steven Yeun – who is best known for his roles in horror series The Walking Dead and Jordan Peele’s horror movie Nope – has joined the MCU, according to Deadline. Yeun is set to join Marvel Studios’ Thunderbolts, in a part which sources say is not only significant to this film but could also play a role going forward in future films of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Yeun’s movie roles include comedy horror Mayhem, Bong Joon-ho’s Okja, Boots Riley’s comedic satire Sorry to Bother You, Lee Chang-dong’s thriller movie Burning, and drama movie Minari – the latter of which is the role he was Oscar-nominated for. His upcoming roles include Netflix series Beef, and Bong Joon-ho’s science fiction movie Mickey 17.
Thunderbolts is set to star Florence Pugh’s Yelena, Sebastian Stan’s Bucky, David Harbour’s Red Guardian, Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Val, Wyatt Russell’s John Walker, Hannah John-Kamen as Ghost, and Olga Kurylenko as Taskmaster. The Bear’s Ayo Edebiri has also joined the ensemble in an undisclosed role. Harrison Ford has taken on the role of Thaddeus ‘Thunderbolt’ Ross, since William Hurt passed away.
Thunderbolts is probably the closest we’ll come to an Avengers-style team up in the future phases, before we get to Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and Avengers: Secret Wars in 2025 and 2026. Thunderbolts is currently set to be the penultimate movie in Marvel’s Phase 5, before the much-delayed Blade. Thunderbolts has a release date of July 2024, and will follow on from Captain America 4 starring Anthony Mackie.
It was recently reported that Disney are going to slow down and scale-down the number of Marvel series they release each year, with Secret Invasion and Loki season 2 the only definite 2023 releases.
We will of course keep you up-to-date with the latest MCU casting news and more.