Invincible's Robert Kirkman seems to casually confirm Steven Yeun's Thunderbolts role

Robert Kirkman has been working with Steven Yeun in one way or another for years at this point—first, via AMC’s adaptation of Kirkman’s comic series The Walking Dead, where Yeun first came to major prominence, and later through his starring role in Amazon’s Invincible TV adaptation. Which might help explain why Yeun would trust Kirkman enough to reveal big, super-secret information to him, like that he’s joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe in a major role—something Kirkman appears to have confirmed this week basically off-handedly, which, whoops.

Specifically, Kirkman was hanging out on a stream from comics artist David Finch, when he casually noted that Yeun had called him lately, having apparently just come off of a costume fitting for a role as Marvel superhero The Sentry in the upcoming Thunderbolts—information Kirkman only appears to have considered might be secret after he mentioned it. (He and Finch appear to both be under the impression that this was public knowledge; while Deadline reported that Yeun was in the movie back in February, there’s only been speculation as to which hero he might be playing in the film, and Marvel’s said pretty much nothing.) Upon realizing he might have spilt some confidential information, Kirkman had a fairly hilarious response, positing that, “I don’t think this is gonna get anybody in trouble,” before matter-of-factly pivoting to, “I don’t care, I don’t work for Marvel. What are they gonna do to me?”

Yeun apparently called Kirkman to share his amusement at going from one “yellow and blue” superhero to another, since both Invincible and Sentry work in those particular primary colors. The character himself will be an odd choice for the MCU to handle, since he comes with a ton of meta baggage; he was originally introduced in 2000 as a forgotten “classic” Marvel hero (with powers roughly equivalent to Superman’s) who’d sealed all memory of himself away to protect his friends and loved one from his nemesis The Void. He’s mostly been used in more recent Marvel stories as an antagonist, since his combination of emotional instability and incredible power tends to make him more of a problem for the good guys to manage than an asset to use. All of which will be interesting to see Yeun tackle when Thunderbolts hits theaters in 2025—provided Kirkman’s reveal is legit.