'Thunderbolts*' Big Game Trailer

Preview:

The new trailer for ‘Thunderbolts*’ is online.
Sebastian Stan and Florence Pugh are leading the cast.
The Marvel team-up movie will be in theaters on May 2nd.

Marvel enjoyed a more successful 2024 thanks to the big screen likes of ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ (actually, only ‘Deadpool & Wolverine,’ since the company chose to only release that one movie last year and on TV via ‘Agatha All Along,’ but is hoping that a slightly busier 2025 will also deliver.

We’ll find out soon enough, as ‘Captain America: Brave New World’ lands next week (on Valentine’s Day, no less) and ‘The Fantastic Four: First Steps’ brings the company’s “First Family” into the MCU in July.

Squeezed in between though, is a group of misfits who are looking to find some redemption. Or, you know, just survive…

Just who are the Thunderbolts?

(L to R) John Walker (Wyatt Russell), Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen) and Alexei Shostakov/Red Guardian (David Harbour) in Marvel Studios' 'Thunderbolts*'. Photo courtesy of Marvel Studios. © 2025 Marvel.

It isn’t an exact match, but the simple way of explaining the Thunderbolts is that they’re Marvel’s version of 'The Suicide Squad': a group of villains –– or at least anti-heroes –– brought together by third-party schemers in a possibly ill-advised attempt to turn them into a force for good.

In Marvel’s case, they were originally assembled by Baron Zemo and the Masters Of Evil and have sometimes been linked to Hulk regular General Thaddeus ‘Thunderbolt’ Ross (hence the name). They made their debut in the pages of ‘The Incredible Hulk’ in 1996, introduced by writer and artist team Peter David and Mike Deodato. They continued to their own series the same year, created by Kurt Busiek and Mark Bagley, and have been brought back with a bunch of alternative line-ups in comics ever since.

Who is in the Thunderbolts movie?

(L to R) Alexei Shostakov/Red Guardian (David Harbour), Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), John Walker (Wyatt Russell) and Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh) in Marvel Studios' 'Thunderbolts*'. Photo courtesy of Marvel Studios. © 2025 Marvel.

We know (most of) the characters who will be showing up, since they were announced way back in 2022 at Disney’s D23 event: Bucky Barnes (formerly The Winter Soldier), played by Sebastian Stan, is a key figure alongside Florence Pugh’s Yelena Belova, Olga Kurylenko’s Antonia Dreykov/Taskmaster and David Harbour’s Alexei Shostakov/Red Guardian, those three having been introduced in ‘Black Widow’.

Then there’s John Walker, AKA US Agent, played by Wyatt Russell and first seen in ‘The Falcon and the Winter Soldier’ and Hannah John-Kamen’s Ava Starr, the phasing character known as Ghost, who debuted in ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp’.

Lewis Pullman has the role of “Bob” –– no, not a weird crossover with his ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ character –– but instead short for Robert Reynolds, the troubled Marvel hero also known as “Sentry,” though it remains to be seen how his introduction and powers will be handled in the MCU.

Bob (Lewis Pullman) in Marvel Studios' Thunderbolts*. Photo courtesy of Marvel Studios. © 2024 Marvel.

As for those overseeing the team, we have Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, AKA Val, played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus, who was also introduced in the ‘Falcon’ series and has since cropped up in the likes of ‘Black Widow’ and ‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.’

And ‘Blockers’ Geraldine Viswanathan, is aboard in an unknown role, taking over the part from ‘The Bear’s Ayo Edebiri, who had to depart due to scheduling issues.

Also in an unknown capacity will be ‘Heels’ Chris Bauer and ‘Jack Ryan’/‘Elsbeth’s Wendell Piece, who will be back in comic book territory as Perry White in James Gunn’s ‘Superman.’ Fun fact: both actors got their big break on ‘The Wire.’

**What’s the story of ‘Thunderbolts*’?**

(Right) Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) in Marvel Studios' 'Thunderbolts*'. Photo courtesy of Marvel Studios. © 2025 Marvel.

Here’s Disney/Marvel’s official logline for the movie as per this latest trailer:

“After finding themselves ensnared in a death trap set by Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, these disillusioned castoffs must embark on a dangerous mission that will force them to confront the darkest corners of their pasts. Will this dysfunctional group tear themselves apart, or find redemption and unite as something much more before it’s too late?”

Exactly what the “dangerous mission” is at this point is not specified, but that dark shadow hovering over a city and people seemingly turned into black marks on a floor does hint at a villain tied to one of the characters taken from the pages of Marvel Comics.

As for the tone, it’s very much knockabout action-comedy, with Harbour getting the lion’s share of the quippier lines –– witness his “I’ll sleep when I’m dead” line while speeding along in a car –– while Yelena is describing who they all are, with the pithy sum up, “we all just punch and shoot.”

Marvel Studios' 'Thunderbolts*'. Photo courtesy of Marvel Studios. © 2025 Marvel.

Red Guardian also references Wheaties boxes, and the movie’s new poster riffs on that.

Oh, and we might actually lean what that lurking asterisk is in the title, as Marvel boss Kevin Feige has promised:

“Yes, you’ll notice the asterisk on ‘Thunderbolts*’. That is the official title of ‘Thunderbolts’, and we won’t talk more about that until after the movie comes out.’

**Who is making ‘Thunderbolts*’?**

(L to R) Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), John Walker (Wyatt Russell), and Red Guardian/Alexei Shostakov (David Harbour) in Marvel Studios' Thunderbolts*. Photo courtesy of Marvel Studios. © 2024 Marvel.

Jake Schreier is directing the film based on a script by Eric Pearson and Lee Sung Jin.

We also now know that Son Lux will be scoring ‘Thunderbolts*’. The three-member, American experimental band was Oscar and BAFTA- nominated for their score for 2022’s best picture ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once.’