PremiumSteven Yeun’s Thunderbolts exit creates a stir; here’s everything about Sentry, the row, and Florence Pugh led film
Thunderbolts is set to release on July 25, 2025, and will go on floors in March or April 2024.
Last Updated: 11.14 AM, Jan 05, 2024
There is so much happening in the Marvel Cinematic Universe at this point that none of us can keep track of what is happening at one point on the Marvel Studios’ campus. While waves of updates hint at the shores about the next Avengers movie, the Secret War, and even World War Hulk, there is also a lot happening on the streaming front where the studio is all set to start a new year with Echo, which releases on Disney+ next week. But one thing that is right now overshadowing all of the above-mentioned updates is Steven Yeun’s exit from Thunderbolts.
Yes, if you are uninitiated, Thunderbolts has now lost its Sentry actor who was cast a long time ago and has now walked out of the project. The news that Steven has decided to part ways with the project and studio at the moment left all of us in shock because it is a big actor moving out, taking a very major chunk of the audience that he would have brought with him. But while the world is processing the news, many of us are busy figuring out who Sentry is, why Steven Yeun has walked out, and why Thunderbolts is such a buzz-making project.
So today at OTTplay, we talk about Sentry, his relevance to Thunderbolts as per reports, Steven Yeun’s reason for exit, and more.
What Is Thunderbolts:
In a world without Avengers, how do people fight big villains who want to destroy the planet for their greed? Thunderbolts is the answer. The movie will see the government assembling a group of supervillains to fight a common enemy and see them finally become heroes.
Directed by Jake Schreier, Thunderbolts will feature Florence Pugh as Yelena Belova in the lead alongside David Harbour’s Red Guardian, Harrison Ford as Thaddeus Thunderbolt Ross, Wyatt Russell as John Walker, Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, Olga Kurylenko as Taskmaster, and Hannah John-Kamen as Ghost. However, Steven Yeun was also cast as Sentry, but he chose to walk out now.
Who Is Sentry?
Sentry is one of the most complex Marvel comics characters from the Silver Age. He is a villain but also a hero, and the transition from one to another has been pretty complex too. He has a darker half called The Void that has killed millions and can even be considered to be Marvel Cinematic Universe’s next big villain. His origin in the comics introduces him as a drug addict Robert Reynolds who broke into the lab of a professor who worked on creating the Golden Sentry Serum, one that is more powerful than the serum that made Captain America. Robert injects it and in no time possesses the powers of a million exploding suns. He has since then joined hands with numerous people, including the Mightiest Heroes, to big villains ultimately understanding things and becoming the hero eventually.
Why Did Steven Yeun Quit?
Steven Yeun, known for his time in The Walking Dead, Oscar-winning Minari, the masterpiece of a show Beef, is a very popular actor in the West. He was cast to play Sentry in Thunderbolts against the team of Supervillains. However, he has now quit the gig. While people were curious why, he has now broken silence on the same while talking to Variety. He said, “I think for me, time passing and things shifting kind of pulled me out of it. But [director] Jake [Schreier], I know, is going to do an incredible job…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.”
This certainly doesn’t mean he will never come back to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. He, of course, wants to work with the studio in the future. “I wanna do a Marvel movie....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....I have some ideas, but I heard if you put it out there, you’ll never get it, so I’ll keep it close to my chest,” he added.
Thunderbolts Release?
While it is said that the team will come together to fight Sentry, the movie is set to go on floors in March or April 2024 as per Wyatt Russell’s recent comments. The film is set to release on July 25, 2025. But with a lot of dates getting shuffled yet again as per the rumors, one should take this too with a pinch of salt. Stay tuned to OTTplay for more on this and everything else from the world of streaming and films.