‘Thunderbolts*’ Trailer: The MCU’s ‘Suicide Squad’ Has Arrived
Photo from Variety
From Ryan Cordaro
What I like in Hollywood is competition. Not exactly the kind that boxes other, smaller films out, but big franchises that are similar in their genres. I’ve been getting that feeling now with both Marvel and DC. On the smaller scale, both have shows that just premiered, Agatha All Along and The Penguin, for Marvel and DC, respectively. During Marvel’s dominant run, especially from 2016-2019, DC simply wasn’t keeping up, but that’s a whole different story. The news coming out from the newly-formed DC Studios has been very exciting; James Gunn’s Superman, as well as their first releases in Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story and the upcoming Joker: Folie à Deux, have felt like they’ve finally raised the bar. Now, though, Marvel has released the first trailer for their own Suicide Squad: The Thunderbolts.
Like most Marvel movies, there’s no word on what the story is yet, but an official release from Disney says that Thunderbolts* is the latest film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe from “a crew of indie veterans who definitely sold out.” If I had to make a guess based off this trailer, there’s a conspiracy to take out all of the unruly villains that have either done jobs for the government or have shady pasts that involve people in power, and it somehow leads back to Valentina, the current director of the CIA. The aforementioned indie veterans involved are director Jake Schrier, along with writers Lee Sung Jin and Joanna Calo. Schreier and Jin created the Netflix series Beef, where it won Emmys for best limited series and its lead performances from Steven Yeun (who was originally in the cast for Thunderbolts*) and Ali Wong. Calo is currently a showrunner on FX’s The Bear, as well as being a writer on Beef. I’ve got a soft spot for the grounded, less sci-fi areas of the MCU, and that may be why I think Thunderbolts* looks fantastic. After the multiverse and Kang angles haven’t gone over too well, this back-to-back with Captain America: Brave New World could be the kick in the teeth that the franchise needs to be fully back after Deadpool & Wolverine this past summer.
The actors that reprise roles from previous MCU movies include Florence Pugh (Dune: Part Two, the upcoming We Live in Time), Sebastian Stan (Fresh, the upcoming A Different Man), David Harbour (Stranger Things, the upcoming Creature Commandos), Hannah John-Kamen (Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City, Ready Player One), Julia Louis-Dreyfus (Seinfeld, VEEP), Wyatt Russell (Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, Overlord), and Olga Kurylenko (Oblivion, Quantum of Solace). Lewis Pullman (Top Gun: Maverick, Lessons in Chemistry) and Geraldine Viswanathan (Drive-Away Dolls, Blockers) make their franchise debut in Thunderbolts*. Heavily rumored but unconfirmed cast members include Laurence Fishburne (The Matrix, the upcoming Megalopolis), Rachel Weisz (The Lobster, Dead Ringers), and Harrison Ford, who makes his debut this February in Brave New World as President Ross, replacing the late William Hurt.
Thunderbolts* will hit theaters on May 2th, 2025. And yes, the asterisk is a part of the title. I’m not sure why yet, but it’s in the trailer and every headline for it.
