Steven Yeun is joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe with Thunderbolts

Steven Yeun is trading one comic book universe for another.

The Walking Dead star is joining the cast of Marvel's Thunderbolts, EW has confirmed. Yeun's top secret role is still being kept under wraps, but it's described as a significant character who could be a key part of future Marvel story lines. (In other words, let the speculating begin!)

Yeun joins an ensemble cast that includes Florence Pugh as Yelena Belova, Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes, David Harbour as the Red Guardian, Hannah John-Kamen as Ghost, Wyatt Russell as John Walker, Olga Kurylenko as Taskmaster, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine. The Bear breakout Ayo Edebiri has also signed on in an undisclosed role.

Deadline first reported Yeun's involvement in the project.

Yeun, 39, became a breakout star for his role as Glenn on The Walking Dead. He recently scored an Oscar nomination for 2020's Minari, and also starred in last year's Nope. Up next, he's reuniting with his Okja director Bong Joon Ho for the sci-fi film Mickey 17.

Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige officially announced Thunderbolts at San Diego Comic-Con in 2022, focusing on a group of Marvel anti-heroes and semi-reformed villains who team up for a dangerous mission. Paper Towns' Jake Schreier will direct with a script by Black Widow writer Eric Pearson. It's scheduled to hit theaters July 26, 2024.

EW recently sat down with Feige for an exclusive interview where he revealed that Thunderbolts will start shooting "relatively soon."

"What's fun about that, and I sort of said this at D23, is that they are barely heroes," Feige told EW. "None of them would consider themselves heroes. When your de facto leader is Bucky Barnes, that's sort of all you need to know. That's the trickle down. But again, it goes to the amazing work that [casting director] Sarah Finn has done across the whole MCU. You've got David Harbour and Florence Pugh and these people who are at the top of their game and popping in everything they're doing. They're already here and established in the MCU, and we get to build the movie around them."

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