(Re-)Introducing The Thunderbolts!

"You know I’m bad! I’m bad! Shamone!" Maybe that should have been the theme song for Thunderbolts*, although we have to admit “Where is my Mind?” by The Pixies is a good pick as well. Anyways, hot off the heels of the "Agatha All Along" debut, Marvel is keeping up the momentum by revealing our first full look at Thunderbolts*!

For those unaware, this movie is similar to DC’s Suicide Squad in that it throws together a bunch of bad guys (or at least morally gray guys) to stop a threat bigger than them. Can’t remember them all? We see you and we gotchu, let’s give you guys a quick recap before we get into the trailer:

Yelena Belova, AKA Black Widow

First MCU Appearance: Black Widow (2021)

Played by: Florence Pugh

Natasha Romanoff’s unofficial but totally official sister, Yelena similarly managed to break herself out of the Widow system, so now she’s a hitman/assassin for hire. Joyous!

Alexei Shostakov, AKA Red Guardian

First MCU Appearance: Black Widow (2021)

Played by: David Harbour

"Father" of the Black Widow fam, Red Guardian is Russia’s super soldier answer to Captain America and he’s always looking to wreck stuff up (not to dissimilar to Ralph).

James "Bucky" Barnes, AKA The Winter Soldier

First MCU Appearance: Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)

Played by: Sebastian Stan

Longtime bestie of Steve Rogers who got brainwashed into becoming the Winter Soldier, Bucky is now free, and with the help of Sam Wilson (the former Falcon and new Captain America), he’s further on the path of making amends than ever before.

John Walker, AKA U.S. Agent

First MCU Appearance: "The Falcon and the Winter Soldier" (2021)

Played by: Wyatt Russell

John Walker was officially Captain America for a hot minute, but after juicing on Super Soldier Serum and killing a man in public, his title got stripped away. Now he goes by the generic moniker "U.S. Agent", which means he’s basically allowed to be completely unhinged.

Antonia Dreykov, AKA Taskmaster

First MCU Appearance: Black Widow (2021)

Played by: Olga Kurylenko

Known for a photographic memory that allows her to completely mimic the ability of any hero, Taskmaster gave Natasha and her family some real trouble in Black Widow. The person behind the Taskmaster mask is supposed to be kept a secret, but IMDb has the receipts, so...

Ava Starr, AKA Ghost

First MCU Appearance: Ant-Man and The Wasp (2018)

Played by: Hannah John-Kamen

After a little Quantum experimenting gone wrong left her with the ability to phase through solid matter, Ava was volun-told to become the assassin Ghost. Her phasing is better now thanks to Janet van Dyne (the original Wasp), so now she’s more in control of her power.

And that should be everyone -- Well, apart from the woman who got them all together, but we’ll get to that. In the meantime, the Thunderbolts* teaser begins with Yelena visiting Alexei because -- get this -- she has an existential crisis! Maybe she feels bad about initially wanting to kill Hawkeye? Hey, it’s nothing a good ol’ mission can solve… Albeit, it’s interrupted by Walker, Taskmaster, and Ghost all trying to kill each other (Yelena included)! Thankfully, the pre-mature team-killing is put at a pause when this guy Bob comes out. Eagle-eyed Marvel fans will recognize this fella as Sentry (Lewis Pullman), an experiment gone wrong with Superman-like abilities and is kind of a nut case. He’s most likely the target that the Thunderbolts were sent to kill.

A good mystery to be solved later, but for now, Yelena starts to pick up on the fact that all of them aren’t the best people, and that if they’re in a room together, someone wants them dead. That suspicion holds true when the room starts heating up, transitioning the trailer into montage mode. At this point, Julia Louis-Dreyfus’s Vallentina Allegra de Fontaine goes on monologuing about good guys and bad guys and, ultimately, her conclusion is that its only bad guys and worse guys. This is the likely reason she assembles this team that seems to have taken over Avengers tower. Whoa! That, and the ever-present question of the asterisks in the title, are just a handful of lingering unknowns that the teaser leaves us on… Okay, that and a tag of a bullet proof-ish car that is seemingly being targeted by Bucky who is also a member of the team...?

Whatever the case, we’ll be seeing this movie in May! It’s got a stacked cast, and it should be another good Marvel flick to open the Summer movie season in 2025!