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Steven Yeun: What's up next for the 'Walking Dead' icon

By Karen Butler
Steven Yeun arrives on the red carpet at AMC's "The Walking Dead' Season 6 fan premiere event on October 9, 2015 in New York City. File Photo by John Angelillo/UPI
1 of 3 | Steven Yeun arrives on the red carpet at AMC's "The Walking Dead' Season 6 fan premiere event on October 9, 2015 in New York City. File Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo

NEW YORK, Oct. 27 (UPI) -- Steven Yeun fans won't have long to wait before they can check out his next television project.

Yeun wrapped up his six-season run as Glenn on AMC's zombie-apocalypse series The Walking Dead Sunday, but his voice will soon be heard as the character Steve in Netflix's animated adventure Trollhunters.

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"They said do you want to work with Guillermo del Toro and I said yes!" Yeun told UPI at a recent round-table interview with reporters at New York Comic Con.

The 32-year-old actor went on to recall how when he was asked to read for the part, he immediately wondered, "How does he know who I am?"

"And they go, 'He saw you in this episode of a pilot that didn't do anything called Filthy Sexy Teens'... where I play the most popular kid in school and he's gay and he's Asian, but he's not gay, but he pretends he is because it keeps him popular. But he actually is straight. So, it was like this great conundrum, weird character and [del Toro] saw that and he was like, 'I need to cast him in Trollhunters...' They have nothing to do with each other, but it was fun."

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Yeun described his animated alter-ego as a school bully, who doesn't look at all like him.

"He's like a 6-foot-tall bully and, I'll be honest, when I walked in and they gave me the mock-up for the picture of what he's going to look like -- tall, blonde-haired, waspy-looking guy -- and I was like, 'I'm totally fired,'" he explained. "But it's been cool. I get to play a bully that's a little bit of Jim's rival and you'll see how he continues to change. ... I would say all of the characters have layers, which is what is really interesting about this thing. This is not your average children's program. I think this is going to be one of those where everybody sits down and watches together."

Trollhunters also features the vocal talents of Ron Perlman, Kelsey Grammer and the late Anton Yelchin. It is set to debut on Netflix on Dec. 23.

"When ordinary teenager Jim Lake Jr. stumbles upon a mystical amulet on his way to school one morning, he inadvertently discovers an extraordinary secret civilization of mighty trolls beneath his small town of Arcadia," a synopsis said. "Strong-willed and seeking adventure, but wholly unprepared for the responsibilities thrust upon him, Jim is forced to take on the exalted mantle of Trollhunter, sworn to protect the good trolls from powerful enemies bent on revenge."

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