Summary
- Marvel Studios is heavily marketing Thunderbolts* ahead of its May 2 release.
- The film has an all-star cast and is generating genuine excitement among MCU fans.
- Teasers show the rag-tag group of anti-heroes preparing to save the day in comparison to the Avengers.
With May 2nd just around the corner, Marvel Studios is switching the Thunderbolts* marketing machine into high gear. They sent the majority of the cast to Las Vegas for CinemaCon last week, where they treated attendees to more of the film and a short making-of featurette. As if on cue, yet another teaser for the film has been released.
With all due respect to Anthony Mackie and Harrison Ford, Thunderbolts* is the first project MCU diehards are genuinely excited about in 2025. Yeah, okay… Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man and Daredevil: Born Again have proven that Marvel Studios has what it takes on the streaming series side of the business, but the Marvel Cinematic Universe lives and dies on the big screen, and Thunderbolts seems to have what it takes to get things back on track. Jake Schrier—director of the lovely Robot & Frank as well as the majority of 2023’s Netflix hit Beef—is behind the camera, and he brought Beef creator Lee Sung Jin onboard to rewrite the script originally written by Thor: Ragnarok scribe Eric Pearson. Add in an all-star cast of returning faces like Florence Pugh, Sebastian Stan, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and David Harbour among newcomers such as Lewis Pullman and Geraldine Viswanathan, and you’ve got something for Marvel fans to be thrilled about.
Related
Thunderbolts* director Jake Schreier addressed the comparison of his MCU movie to Suicide Squad.
With less than a month to go, Marvel Studios felt it was time to release another teaser for Thunderbolts* on social media, and it’s giving fans a look at some new footage mixed in with some stuff we’ve seen before. How will the rag-tag group Bucky puts together be able to stop the almighty Sentry and/or Void? It’s hard to tell, but the group of anti-heroes are doing their best Avengers impression, that’s for sure.
The Thunderbolts* (Or Whatever They’re Called) Are Going To Save The Day, People
The teaser begins with Bucky claiming there is “a big threat out there,” which is clearly the Sentry and/or Void pretty much vaporizing people. Say what you want about the Chitarui invasion from The Avengers, but they weren’t causing people to disintegrate into shadows of dust on the sidewalk. Yelena claims Bucky has “the wrong people” because they “have all done bad things.” At one point, John Walker mocks the group, asking them if they’re “done with therapy?”
The teaser builds to Bucky saying, “We could be the people that are coming” to save the day. The MCU has been getting along just fine without an Avengers team since 2019, but it’s clear that if the threat is big enough, a team is needed to get things back in order. Whether the Thunderbolts (or Dark Avengers, or whatever) are going to be that team long-term won’t be made clear until the dust settles on the MCU after Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars.
Thunderbolts* is set to be released in theaters on May 2, 2025.
- Release Date
-
May 2, 2025
- Director
-
Jake Schreier
- Writers
-
Lee Sung-jin, Eric Pearson, Joanna Calo
-
Florence Pugh
Yelena Belova
-
Sebastian Stan
James Bucky Barnes / Winter Soldier
-
David Harbour
Alexei Shostakov / Red Guardian
-
Wyatt Russell
John Walker / U.S. Agent
Source: Marvel Studios/X