Abbott Elementary Casts Thunderbolts Star in Major Role

A new addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe is joining the cast of Abbott Elementary. Audiences may already know Ayo Edebiri from her breakout role as Sydney in The Bear alongside Jeremy Allen White, but she will soon join the superhero world in Marvel’s Thunderbolts. Edebiri’s Thunderbolts role is currently being kept under wraps, but ABC has already revealed who she will be playing in future episodes of Abbott Elementary. Fans of the ABC comedy have been wondering who will play Janine (Quinta Brunson)’s sister, and we now know Ayo Edebiri will appear as Ayesha, Janine’s sister.

Entertainment Weekly has the exclusive first clip of Ayo Edebiri on this week’s episode of Abbott Elementary, titled “Valentine’s Day,” with Janine introducing Jacob to Ayesha via Facetime. Janine has mentioned having a strained relationship with her sister in the past, though it appears Janine may have embellished some of the tension coming from Ayesha. As the clip demonstrates, a simple happy birthday call to Ayesha shows that she seems pretty normal, with Janine coming across as the awkward one. Edebiri’s appearance on this week’s Abbott Elementary is pretty short, but EW confirms she’ll return later in the season with an expanded role.

Ayo Edebiri’s Mystery Role in Thunderbolts

It was revealed in January that Ayo Edebiri has been cast in the upcoming blockbuster film Thunderbolts in a currently-unknown role. Edebiri is best known for portraying Sydney Adamu on the recent hit FX series The Bear, as well as Missy Foreman-Greenwald on Big Mouth, and Hattie on Dickinson. She also serves as a writer on FX’s series adaptation of What We Do in the Shadows.

Edebiri will join a Thunderbolts cast that includes Florence Pugh as Yelena Belova, Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes / Winter Soldier, David Harbour as Red Guardian, Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, Wyatt Russell as John Walker / U.S. Agent, Hannah John-Kamen as Ava Starr / Ghost, Olgya Kurylenko as Taskmaster, and Harrison Ford as Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross.

What Is Thunderbolts About?

While plot details are currently a mystery, Thunderbolts is expected to be based on the Marvel Comics team of the same name, an alliance of antiheroes and villains who reluctantly work for the government. Paper Towns‘ Jake Schreier will direct, with a script from Black Widow’s Eric Pearson. Production is expected to begin in the summer of 2023.

“I just made a joke about [how] it’s like Dungeons and Dragons, where you meet in a tavern and it’s like there’s a dwarf drinking a beer and then there’s like an elvish figure over there, we all come together and then there’s this ghost… it’s not gonna happen like that, I don’t think,” Harbour told ComicBook.com in an interview at last year’s D23 Expo. “But I think that’s one of the mysteries of the movie is what is their relationship, and as you say, there is a lot of exciting things as you wrap up the next phase in terms of sort of what their part of the whole universe is in this random, chaotic way. So, you know, we can’t say too much at this point, but they’re an exciting introduction of this team together again, that’s going to be a lot of fun.”