Marvel Studios thrilled fans at Brazil’s first-ever D23 fan event with an almost-4-minute trailer for Thunderbolts*, the upcoming team-up film set to bring together an eclectic group of antiheroes from MCU. David Harbour, reprising his Black Widow role as Red Guardian, was on hand to present the new footage to the crowd. Take a look at the big trailer above.
Directed by Jake Schreier (Beef, Robot & Frank, Paper Towns), the film centres around an unconventional lineup, uniting fan-favourite characters who prefer the shadows. Florence Pugh returns as Yelena Belova, the assassin still wrestling with her past. Joining her are Sebastian Stan‘s Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier, Wyatt Russell’s John Walker, U.S. Agent, Hannah John-Kamen’s Ava Starr/Ghost, and Olga Kurylenko’s Antonia Dreykov/Taskmaster, along with Julia Louis-Dreyfus as the manipulative CIA director, Valentina Allegra de Fontaine. Newcomers Lewis Pullman and Geraldine Viswanathan.
The trailer opens with a bigger look at the adrenaline-charged chase sequence that we saw in the teaser trailer. We find the team racing across a desert landscape in a conspicuous red limo, being driven by none other than Red Guardian. Yelena fires back at pursuing vehicles from the passenger seat, and Bucky, sporting his iconic arm and motorcycle, pops up with firepower of his own.
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An intriguing moment in the trailer has the team arriving at the iconic Avengers Tower—once owned by Tony Stark and now under government ownership—where Valentina, in her typical sardonic style, remarks, “How crazy is it to think of all the monumental fights that happened exactly here where you’re standing? I mean, the place wasn’t cheap, but it’s got good optics.”
Further intrigue surrounds Pullman’s character, known as Bob, and also known as Marvel character Sentry. In an October interview with GameRader+, Pullman expressed uncertainty over his character’s alignment, stating, “I genuinely don’t know [if he’s a hero or villain]. But I would enjoy going in either direction.”
As for the mysterious asterisk beside Thunderbolts in the title, the trailer has fuelled speculation about whether “Thunderbolts” is indeed the team’s final name. In one scene, after Red Guardian’s enthusiastic proclamation, “We are the Thunderbolts!” Bucky retorts, “We can’t call ourselves that,” followed by an asterisk flashing on the title card. Could a name change be on the horizon or is this, perhaps, more of a sign that this misfit crew is not yet fully united? In the MCU, a team name like “Thunderbolts” has deep comic roots, tied to Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross – who appears to be absent here.
Thunderbolts* is set to premiere in Australia on 1 May and in the U.S. on 2 May 2025.
