Marvel dropped the first “Thunderbolts*” trailer early Monday morning, offering fans a first look at footage from the bad guy team-up movie. The film assembles misfits, villains and villain-adjacent characters from the Marvel Cinematic Universe for their own film, led by Florence Pugh’s Yelena Belova from “Black Widow.”
The barely-merry cast of characters includes Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), Red Guardian (David Harbour), John Walker (Wyatt Russell), Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko), Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen) and Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus).
In the footage, which was first shown at San Diego Comic-Con earlier this summer and is backed by the iconic Pixies song “Where Is My Mind?,” we find Yelena — sporting a new haircut — seeking out her “father” Alexei (Harbour). As they convene in his very disheveled living room, she laments that “there is something wrong with me — an emptiness.”
It appears that, since “Black Widow,” Yelena has thrown herself back into the world of shady contract killing in search of her true purpose. But on one mission, she finds herself lured to a room where she encounters others like her — and a mystery man in a hospital gown named Bob (Lewis Pullman).
After they all try to kill each other, they put together that someone likely brought them together on purpose. Those others are, of course, her future Thunderbolts teammates, and that someone appears to be Valentina (Louis-Dreyfus).
“We’re brought up with this belief that there are good guys, and there are bad guys,” her voiceover says. “But eventually, you come to realize that there are bad guys, and there are worse guys.”
Thunderbolts' Origins in Comics
While the film may gloss over the finer points of their origins, to get the full backstory set-up here you should probably watch “Black Widow” and “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.” The “Thunderbolts” crew also includes Olga Kurylenko (Taskmaster from “Black Widow”), Hannah John-Kamen (Ghost from “Ant-Man and the Wasp”), Russell (John Walker from “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier”) and Julia Louis-Dreyfus (as mastermind Valentina Allegra de Fontaine). “Top Gun: Maverick” star Lewis Pullman plays a mysterious character named Bob.
The “Thunderbolts” team was originally a group of heroes who took on the names of classic heroes in order to try to earn the public’s trust. Eventually, they were revealed to be the villains that they were trying to emulate, leading to some of the most intriguing storylines in Marvel Comics.
Is this a Suicide Squad clone?
The first trailer for “Thunderbolts*” lets you now hear the actual audio and see it in more than 180p quality, and it is excellent, though how the film performs without true marquis heroes remains to be seen. But in the current state of the MCU, an genuinely great movie would go along way.
The film looks funny to be sure, but the action? The sequence where Yelena throws a knife and it bounces through everyone before making its way back to her is excellent. The same for every time we see Bucky in action.
What About Bob?
The trailer doesn’t really get into who Bob really is: one of Marvel Comics’ most powerful superheroes, who harbors a dark secret. In the comics, Bob, also known as the Sentry, is the product of an experimental super-soldier serum that granted him amazing powers.
What the stars are saying
Following the footage reveal in Hall H earlier this summer, “Thunderbolts*” star Florence Pugh described the film to the audience as “brave,” amongst other things. Why is it brave?
“Because I don’t think this tone has been done before about these kind of people, in their specific roles in this world,” Pugh explained to TheWrap on the red carpet after the presentation.
“And I think that it takes a lot to show this, and I think it takes a lot to go there, and I’m very grateful for Jake trying to push that and to force it, and also very grateful that Kevin also backed it, and believed in us to do it.”
Where Can I See The Trailer?
You can check out the first “Thunderbolts*” trailer in the video below.
Conclusion: Is 'Thunderbolts' the MCU's next big hit?
While the trailer is exciting, it does raise some questions about whether “Thunderbolts” will be able to capture the same level of audience interest as other Marvel movies. Marvel has been struggling to keep up the momentum of the first few phases of the MCU, with some recent films and shows underperforming at the box office. However, the trailer suggests that “Thunderbolts” will offer something different from other Marvel movies. It will be interesting to see if that's enough to attract audiences.
I do not know how this movie will perform when Marvel’s box office is so all over the place these days, and this does not have Spider-Man, Deadpool or Wolverine in it. But if it’s good, that’s all I care about and this trailer does in fact look very good, and it seems most fans agree. Thunderbolts arrives in May 2025.
