Actor Steven Yeun shed light on his exit from Marvel’s "Thunderbolts," and opened up about his departure from the upcoming antihero film in an interview with Variety.
He cited last year’s SAG-AFTRA strike as one reason behind his decision.
"I think for me, time passing and things shifting kind of pulled me out of it," he explained Wednesday night, while celebrating the opening of the Louis Vuitton pop-up in West Hollywood.
"But Jake [Schreier], I know, is going to do an incredible job," he continued. "I wanna do a Marvel movie."
Reports revealing Yeun’s involvement in "Thunderbolts" first emerged in February, though as Variety noted, Marvel never officially confirmed his part.
The film is being helmed by "Paper Towns" director Jake Schreier, with "Beef" creator Lee Sung Jin writing the script from a first draft by "Black Widow" screenwriter Eric Pearson.
"Thunderbolts" will feature David Harbour as Red Guardian, Olga Kurylenko as Taskmaster, Florence Pugh as Yelena Belova, Hannah John-Kamen as Ghost, Wyatt Russell as U.S. Agent, and Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes. The film has been described as an "anti-Avengers, Suicide Squad-style team."
Filming for "Thunderbolts" was paused in May when the WGA strikes broke out. However, once the dual Hollywood strikes ended, the film failed to resume production.
"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," Yeun told Variety.
Responding to questions about what Marvel movie he hoped to work on in the future, Yeun replied, "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 that he had "some ideas" but heard that "if you put it out there, you’ll never get it," which is why he decided to remain silent on the topic.
Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
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