Florence Pugh is reprising her role as Yelena Belova in Marvel’s Thunderbolts*, which is set to hit theatres in May. Amid a trailer highlighting the indie influence, Florence Pugh—herself an indie darling of Midsommar—described the film as an “A-24-feeling” picture. Thunderbolts* is directed by Jake Schreier, and Lee Sung Jin, Joanna Calo, and Eric Pearson are the film’s writers. The film is based on the Marvel comics team of the same name, and it’s the 36th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. With Anora recently earning five Oscars, big Hollywood studios like Disney may want to take a crack at getting some indie touch. Florence Pugh has some background in acting with indie films and A24.
Florence Pugh Says Thunderbolts* Has an “Indie Feel”
In a recent interview with Empire, Pugh said the film’s tone “ended up becoming this quite big indie, A24-feeling assassin movie with Marvel superheroes.” Also, when Schreier took on the job of directing Thunderbolts*, he was given essential direction from Marvel:” ‘Make it something different.'” While it is a team-up of several MCU characters from previous projects, the team consists of individuals with shady backgrounds and is barely powered. The team is a group of individuals looking for some worth and belonging.
Unsurpisingly, the tone is different from other Marvel films, considering Scherier’s past with indie projects like Beef and Robot & Frank. Given that Beef was an A24 production, Schreier described Thunderbolts* as having a dark tone with emotion. “There’s a certain amount of Beef tone in it that does feel different; there is an emotional darkness that we brought to this that is resonant but doesn’t come at the expense of comedy.” Additionally, Pugh teases the relationship between Yelena and the mysterious ‘Bob’ (who is Sentry), played by Lewis Pullman.
“Bob is going through what all of them are probably, secretly, going through,” Pugh says. She also adds the connection between Yelena and Bob. “Yelena sees parts of herself in him. She’s always been someone who wants to look after people. She has a sweet spot for him and essentially likes looking after him because he’s useless. He’s absolutely useless,” Pugh said. The latest teaser trailer for Thunderbolts* offers some A24 indie energy – bringing something dark and unequivocally hilarious. The trailer showed the stars in their Marvel gear and their A24 acting credits. Also, Marvel got a typical A24 makeover and showed stylized cards such as “the writer sand directors of Beef” and “the editor of Minari.”
The teaser shows the overlap between A24 and the MCU, per instruction by Marvel head Kevin Feige to Schreier The director said to Variety, “The goal that Kevin set at the beginning was to go in and try to make this different,” Schreier explained, praising his creative collaborators including Lee, Calo and Eric Pearson, who helped write an early first draft of the script “If you can imagine a Marvel movie from people who make that kind of work, and imagine where those tones could meet, then I feel like that’s what we hope we’ve made.”
Thunderbolts* Poster Seemingly Reveals Asterisk
Much speculation was made on the asterisk on the movie title since it carries some kind of hidden meaning. At last year’s Cinemacon, Feige kept mum on the meaning of the asterisk. He shared, “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.” His refusal to address the asterisk then made it clear that it has a significant meaning. Last month, a poster of the film was shared online, seemingly revealing what the asterisk means.
The poster featured all the members of the team, including Pugh’s Yelena, each inside one of the asterisk’s six points. The tagline reads “Not Super. Not Heroes. Not Giving Up. At the bottom of the poster, in fine print, the asterisk is shown to mean that “The Avengers are not available.” The message implies that U.S. President Ross and Captain America will not be around to rebuild Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, leading to no superhero team to stop The Sentry. “The Avengers are not available,” the poster suggests, that the Avengers are not available to assist in this world-ending crisis. The film didn’t strongly rely on extensive use of VFX since the team consists of super soldiers and skilled assassins.
Sebastian Stan, who is reprising his role as Bucky Barnes a.k.a The Winter Solider opened up about the film having practical effects unlike previous MCU projects. He explained, “It has its own vibe, and it’s funny, and it’s real, and we did actual real stunts, like when you’re watching a truck blow up, it’s a truck blown up. It’s not CGI,” Stan shared, explaining, “Marvel really wanted this to have its own- there were many things in the movie that were actually done practically, and I think that does go a long way, because people are just smart. I think audiences just, they know.”
Thunderbolts is part of Phase five of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Little is currently known about the story, although the trailers have teased some ideas of what to expect. In other MCU news, Stranger Things star Sadie Sink has joined the cast for the upcoming Spider-Man 4 movie. It remains to be seen what Sink’s role will be in Tom Holland’s fourth solo outing as Spider-Man. Following the events of No Way Home, the fourth is sure to help understand what Spider-Man has been up to now that his Peter Parker identity is erased from everyone in the world, including Zendaya’s MJ and his best friend Ned Leeds.
Final Thoughts
Even with the trailers and some first looks, we know little about Thunderbolts* beyond that it will feature the group of supervillains with the God-like character, Sentry, played by Lewis Pullman. The most recent trailer showed the team forming an unlikely alliance, with each individual seeking to prove something. The skilled individuals refuse to let their pasts define them, so they quickly take the opportunity to save the day. Additionally, the Super Bowl trailer revealed the aftermath of Avengers: Endgame. The film was confirmed to be in development by Marvel head Kevin Fiege in 2022, bringing back reformed villains and antiheroes from MCU’s past, especially Florence Pugh and her character, Yelena, to form the new team.
