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Ayo Edebiri is having herself a month — fresh off of her Emmy win for her star turn on FX's The Bear, and busy prepping for her first time hosting Saturday Night Live later this week, Edebiri is now so big time she doesn't even have room for all the projects on her plate, unfortunately for Marvel's Thunderbolts.
The latest tentpole hopeful for the MCU, Marvel Studios' Thunderbolts had to replace Edebiri when it was announced she would have to leave the project due to scheduling conflicts. The change really has less to do with Ebebiri and more to do with the delay in production created by the dual WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes last year.
As Edebiri's star continued to rise on The Bear and the 2023 comedy Bottoms (among other projects), it's no surprised she had more work than she knew what to do with when the strikes finally ended.
She is now being replaced in Thunderbolts by another rising star, Geraldine Viswanathan, who is enjoying a breakout moment herself. After starring in the Universal comedy feature Blockers, she spent 2023 starring in the TBS series Miracle Workers, the Sundance film Cat Person and the Apple TV+ feature The Beanie Bubble.
Viswanathan will next be seen alongside Margaret Qualley in Ethan Coen’s film Drive-Away Dolls, in addition to the Will Ferrell and Reese Witherspoon Amazon comedy You’re Cordially Invited.
Edebiri is the second major cast member from Thunderbolts to abruptly leave the project. Steven Yeun, another major breakout star from 2023 thanks to his memorable role on Netflix's Beef, also departed to do scheduling issues and was replaced by Lewis Pullman.
According to Deadline, Marvel had no comment about Ayo Edebiri being replaced by Geraldine Viswanathan. Cast shakeups like this can sometimes be a sign of trouble for a film, but it seems Edebiri and Yeun leaving Marvel's Thunderbolts had more to do with their in-demand status and the backlog of projects created by the Hollywood strikes last year. Either way, the MCU desperately needs another hit and hopes they've found the right cast to turn the studio's recent fortunes around.
