The Thunderbolts movie was announced at San Diego Comic-Con earlier this year, and now Kevin Feige has revealed more cast members and detail about the film at D23. The story is based on a collection of villains and anti-heroes who over the years in the comics have posed as true heroes, searched for redemption, and are conscripted by the government.
The cast lineup is Wyatt Russell (John Walker/US Agent), Hannah John-Kamen (Ava/Ghost), Red Guardian (David Harbour), Julia Louis-Dreyfuss (Valentina Allegra de Fontaine), Florence Pugh (Yelena Belova/Black Widow II), and a surprise announcement of the return of Sebastian Stan as The Winter Soldier.
Touted as the Marvel version of The Suicide Squad, Thunderbolts will be directed by Jake Schreier (Paper Towns) with Eric Pearson (Black Widow) penning the script. According to Deadline, the movie is set to go into production early next year, and it was announced at D23 that the film will mark the closing of Phase 5 of the MCU, currently set for release on July 26, 2024, before The Fantastic Four reboot kicks off the beginning of Phase 6.
The Thunderbolts comic series was revived just this year by Marvel, with a storyline that sees Hawkeye leading a team that consists of Monica Rambeau, America Chavez, Power Man, Persuasion, and a new character called Gutsen Glory. While this clearly isn't the angle that the film is going for considering the cast of characters that have been revealed it's a way of re-introducing the concept of the team to newer readers before the film is released.
Phase 5 releases for Marvel are all lined up with the first film being Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, currently set for February 17, 2023. Following the release of Thunderbolts in summer 2024, Phase 6 begins with Fantastic Four currently slated for release on November 8, 2024. Other upcoming titles for Phase 6 include Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and Avengers: Secret Wars, which are respectively slated for release on May 2, 2025, and November 7, 2025.
As yet, no further details are available regarding the plot of Thunderbolts but bringing in another anti-hero/villain story as the studio did with Loki could work well for the MCU. Hiddleston became a surprise fan favorite as Loki when he first appeared in Thor in 2011 and has risen to be one of the MCU's most popular, and complicated, characters. Loki's popularity proves that audiences aren't only interested in the black and white good versus evil stories. Thunderbolts is set to strike theaters on July 26, 2024.
Source: Deadline, Culture Crave|Twitter