Marvel’s ‘Thunderbolts’ Recruits ‘The Bear’s Ayo Edebiri

Marvel Studios' 'Thunderbolts.'

Ayo Edebiri has gained a lot of attention lately for her role as driven chef Sydney Adamu in FX's ‘The Bear’, for which she has been nominated for several awards and won some trophies.

Which has led to her getting a call from the Marvel team, and now Deadline reports that Edebiri has been recruited for the ‘Thunderbolts’ cast.

Ayo Edebiri from 'The Bear.' Photo courtesy of FX.

Originally confirmed as in development by Marvel boss Kevin Feige at the company’s 2022 San Diego Comic-Con panel, the main casting line-up was later announced at Disney’s D23 event last September.

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.

Sebastian Stan from 'Thunderbolts' at D23 Expo 2022.

For the movie we know (most of) the characters who will be showing up: 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’.

Wyatt Russell from 'Thunderbolts' at D23 Expo 2022.

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’. We also have Thaddeus Ross––last seen in ‘Black Widow’ and played since ‘The Incredible Hulk’ by William Hurt. But because of the actor’s death last year, Marvel has had to recast the role, tapping genre icon Harrison Ford to take over. It’s unknown what position Ross will have in the new movie––the former General was Secretary of State in ‘Captain America: Civil War’.

Julia Louis-Dreyfus from 'Thunderbolts' at D23 Expo 2022.

Given Marvel’s typical shroud of secrecy, nothing is yet known about how Edebiri will fit into the story or what character she’s playing. She could be a character drawn from the comics, but even if that’s the case, her backstory could be changed for the film’s story.

So far, all that is really confirmed about the film beyond the main cast is the presence of ‘Paper Towns’ and ‘Robot and Frank’ director Jake Schreier and ‘Black Widow’ writer Eric Pearson providing the script.

‘Thunderbolts’ will be in theaters on July 26th next year.

David Harbour from 'Thunderbolts' at D23 Expo 2022.