One can only imagine the cloud of tension currently occupying the corridors of Marvel Studios as everyone scratches their heads and try to think of the best way to deal with the whole controversy surrounding Jonathan Majors (especially since they have already paid him $20 million for Avengers: The Kang Dynasty). But apparently, the MCU’s Phase Four bad luck that followed Phase Five is continuing its reign in 2023 as another controversy is just waiting in the wings, ready to pounce and doom yet another promising project.
The assault allegations case against the actor has been steadily spiraling out of control, with fans demanding the MCU to recast Kang — though Majors’ future as Kang was doomed long before he agreed to play the part. While he has been dropped from movies, from his PR and talent agencies, and the U.S. Army has also pulled the plug on the multi-million dollar ad with him, the Marvel universe is chewing its proverbial nails as it ponders over how to fix the chaos that threatens to imbalance its entire Phase Five and Six and minimizing the backlash as it finally does so.
But that is the least of its problems as the whole controversy around Beef star David Choe and his admission about sexually assaulting his masseuse is starting to plague the parts of the MCU that are Kang-free. Yep, it is threatening the success of a highly-anticipated Marvel project which is being predicted as an instant hit the second it is released — Thunderbolts. And the reason? Steven Yeun.
It was reported back in February that Steven Yeun will be making his MCU debut with the film Thunderbolts and will be joining the cast of Florence Pugh, Sebastian Stan, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus. It hasn’t been revealed what character he is expected to play, though rumor is that he will be seen as the film’s antagonist Sentry.
But Yeun and the rest of the Beef cast members have recently stood up in support of Choe and stressed that Choe calling himself a “successful rapist” during a 2014 podcast is nothing but a “fabricated” story that the actor made up. To say that this show of solidarity, when the clip of Choe’s admission still exists, hasn’t been received well would be the understatement of the century and has only served as a reminder that Yeun is due to join the MCU soon.
As Thunderbolts is due to begin filming sometime in June, some are advising the studio to come to its senses and cut ties with Yeun already to avoid a rerun of the Majors fiasco.
Seeing that the studio has retained its stony silence about Majors’ future in the MCU, it is safe to say it won’t be acknowledging how Yeun supporting Choe. But the latter does have the potential to rile up yet another tornado of controversies for the franchise, especially Thunderbolts, which has been dealing with its share of setbacks, whether it is being plagued with the infamous “M-She-U” criticism (those bothered by MCU’s increasing female representation), getting criticized for its lineup of characters, the re-writing of its script, or the rumors that Hannah John-Kamen’s Ghost has left the film.