Marvel movie Thunderbolts releases first trailer, teases anti-hero team-up

Not since Avengers: Endgame has there been a big team-up in a Marvel movie, so the upcoming Thunderbolts film has a lot of expectations hoisted on its shoulders.

Due for release in May, Thunderbolts released its first trailer today, which smartly centred superstar Florence Pugh.

The film features the assemblage of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s anti-heroes – not quite villains, at least not anymore, but not boy scouts either.

The clips include scenes of the characters fighting each other before realising they’re a collective target. There is also a voiceover from Pugh’s character wondering if she’s just going through the motions, lacking a grand purpose.

Sounds like an identity crisis in the making.

The cast includes Pugh, who reprises her role as the droll and wise-cracking Yelena Belova, an assassin trained in the Black Widow program. The character inherits the mantle previously belonging to Scarlet Johansson’s Natasha Romanoff. Pugh joined the MCU in Black Widow and has since made a guest appearance in the streaming series Hawkeye.

Thunderbolts will also feature David Harbour as the Red Guardian and Rachel Weisz as Melina Vostokoff, who were both in Black Widow, plus MCU mainstay Sebastian Stan, who comes back as Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier.

Other returnees include Wyatt Russell as US Agent (Falcon and Winter Soldier), Hannah John-Kamen as Ghost (Ant-Man and the Wasp) and Olga Kurylenko as Taskmaster (Black Widow).

Julia Louis-Dreyfus’s wily spymaster Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, kind of like an even more ethically compromised version of Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury, will run the covert ops group. She has previously appeared in Black Widow, Falcon and Winter Soldier and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.

Harrison Ford will make his second appearance in the MCU as President Thunderbolt Ross. He takes over the role from the late William Hurt and will make his debut in next February’s Captain America: New World Order.

Australian actor Geraldine Viswanathan and Top Gun: Maverick’s Lewis Pullman are also in the cast.

Behind the scenes, Thunderbolts has a heavy presence from the Emmy-winning team of Netflix miniseries Beef. The film is directed by Jake Schreier, who helmed six episodes of Beef while the script comes from Beef creator Lee Sung Jin and Beef and The Bear writer Joanna Calo, as well as regular Marvel scribe Eric Pearson. Pearson was the credited screenwriter for Black Widow.

Beef star and producer Steven Yeun originally had a role in the production before he had to drop out due to a scheduling conflict that arose out of last year’s actors and writers’ strikes.

Thunderbolts will be the 36th film in the MCU and will be in cinemas on May 1, 2025.