Thunderbolts: Director, cast, release date… Everything you need to know about the film that will relaunch Marvel in 2025 – Cinema News

Announced for June 2022, Thunderbolts, Marvel’s equivalent to DC’s Suicide Squad, will finally see the light of day. Filming for the feature film centered on the anti-heroes of the Marvel Cinematic Universe began on February 26 of this year. What do we know about the film? We took stock below!

Who is the director of Thunderbolts?

The various characters installed during Phase IV of the MCU suggested that Marvel would be making the feature film official in 2022, bringing together several supervillains and anti-heroes. And Jake Schreier, director of Paper Towns and the Treta series, is in charge of directing.

For many fans, the project has been in the works since Julia Louis-Dreyfus appeared in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Her character Valentina Allegra de Fontaine has been described as an evil equivalent of Nick Fury. Her Avengers will therefore be the Thunderbolts, whose team compositions have changed since their first appearance in the comics in 1997.

Who are the Thunderbolts?

The team was created by writer Kurt Busiek and artist Mark Bagley, and first appeared in the comic book The Incredible Hulk #449, published in January 1997. In September 2022, during the D23 event, Marvel announced the final formation of the team of antiheroes. Florence Pugh, already seen in the film Black Widow alongside Scarlett Johansson, will be leading the Thunderbolts.

The new Black Widow will be surrounded by David Harbor (Red Guardian in Black Widow), Hannah John-Kamen (Ghost in Ant-Man), Wyatt Russell (John Walker in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier), Olga Kurylenko (Trainer in Black Widow ) and Sebastian Stan, aka Bucky Barnes, the Winter Soldier. Julia Louis-Dreyfus, who plays Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, will also participate.

Harrison Ford as Red Hulk

In turn, Harrison Ford reprises the role of Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross in Captain America: Brave New World and Thunderbolts. A role previously played by the late William Hurt. For the record, the character, created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in 1962, is a general in the US Air Force, but has a secret identity: Red Hulk.

Although the 81-year-old actor said he accepted because his friends “seemed to have fun in the Marvel movies,” the casting announcement came as a surprise to many, starting with David Harbour. In an interview with ComicBook.com, the Red Guardian interpreter stated:

“If I have the chance to see this happen and experience it, I will really enjoy it. Can you imagine an angry Harrison Ford in a green suit with ping-pong balls everywhere?”

On the other hand, Steven Yeun – announced for the role of Sentinel, the equivalent of Marvel’s Superman – and Ayo Edebiri (The Bear) had to leave the project due to scheduling conflicts, but were quickly replaced by Lewis Pullman and Geraldine Viswanathan.

A long delay

The feature film, written by Lee Sung Jin (Treta) and Eric Pearson (Thor: Ragnarok, Black Widow), suffered a significant delay due to the writers’ and actors’ strike. During the release of Dune: Part 2, Florence Pugh told Entertainment Tonight that she would enter the set shortly after promoting Dune 2.

“When we filmed Black Widow, we thought we would film the next movie relatively early. We were hoping to film sometime in the future, and three years after the release of Black Widow, it’s finally happening. So it feels surreal, but yes, Yelena is coming back.”

“It’s time to make a good Marvel movie”

Wyatt Russell, who plays John Walker, the first character to don Captain America’s armor in the Falcon and the Winter Soldier series, after the departure of Steve Rogers (Chris Evans), seems to be convinced that Thunderbolts will be able to take audiences – which seems escape from Marvel’s latest productions – back to the cinemas.

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter in November last year, the actor explained that Thunderbolts will be very different from the other MCU films.

“I am convinced it will be a good film. I know things aren’t going great for Marvel right now. I know Jake Schreier very well, I know how smart he is and how much he cares about doing something interesting and different, and using everyone’s talents in the best way possible. The story they created is very interesting. I can’t talk about it, but it’s not a classic Marvel movie like we’ve seen in the past.”

I think it’s going to be a lot of fun and it’s going to be something that Marvel fans look at and say, ‘Oh, okay, this is a little different, let’s go all in on this.’ It’s time to get to work, it’s time to make a good Marvel movie. So let’s do this, let’s work hard and let’s not take things for granted

What will be the plot of Thunderbolts?

We still don’t know what the stakes will be and what the big enemy the Thunderbolts will have to face will be, but the presence of the character Sentinel (who has never appeared in a feature film before) could be a clue.

The antihero has a double personality: every good action of his triggers a negative equivalent of Void, his evil side, without him even being aware of it. So the heroes will likely have to face one of their own.

When will Thunderbolts be released?

After several delays, Thunderbolts was announced to be released in theaters on April 30, 2025, just two and a half months after Julius Onah’s Captain America: Brave New World, in which Anthony Mackie will first appear as Captain America.

The film will also mark Harrison Ford’s first on-screen appearance as Thaddeus Ross and the return of Liv Tyler as Betty Ross (Thaddeus’s daughter), 17 years after Louis Leterrier’s The Incredible Hulk.

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