Kevin Fiege, president of Marvel Studios, announced that the forthcoming Thunderbolts movie will conclude Phase 5 in 2024 at San Diego Comic-Con. However, he did not divulge which villain teams will be joining together to cause trouble for our heroes. The clues have been there for astute MCU fans to see throughout Phase 4 as to which questionable heroes and morally ambiguous villains will be joining the line-up, but now we have official confirmation of who will be a part of this team of fan-favourite anti-heroes. Following Marvel’s identification of Countessa Valentina (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) as a “new leader” in the franchise, Deadline reported in June that the studio had approached Jake Schreier about directing a script by Black Widow’s writer Eric Pearson.
We last saw Countessa Valentina in Black Widow, where she enticed Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh) into hunting down Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner). This plot thread continues in Hawkeye, which airs on Disney+. She was also actively trying to steer U.S. President John Walker (Wyatt Russell) in a different course. After his disastrous turn as Captain America in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, he returns to his former life as an agent. Fans can also look forward to seeing returning franchise favourites like Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Kate McKinnon, Keri Russell, Sebastian Stan, David Harbour, Hannah John-Kamen, and Olga Kurylenko, as was revealed at D23. However, one character many comic book readers were hoping to hear about today was left from the announcement: Baron Zemo (Daniel Brühl), who was sent back to jail at the end of The Falcon and The Winter Soldier. Perhaps they are saving the reveal for next year, although his character is rather important to how this classic team-ups comic operates.
There has also been speculation that Abomination, played by Tim Roth, the breakout star of the last She-Hulk film, may join the squad. They won’t be able to ruin it for everyone. Still, Schreier’s selection as a director has caught many by surprise, and the possible tone of this enormous ensemble cast has been called into doubt. The movie version of John Green’s teen romance Paper Towns is one of his most well-known works, and he has also directed music videos for artists like Kendrick Lamar and Kanye West. A refreshing change from the norm for the MCU’s directing staff. Shooting on the movie will get underway in the new year.