Previously, Marvel's Red Guardian actor David Harbour teased the 'funny and complex' relationship his character has with Florence Pugh's Yelena Belova in Thunderbolts and now, he's providing a little more detail.
Speaking to ScreenRant, Harbour stated, "So they have a lot of unexplored history. There's a lot of details that the director, Jake, has gone into the great care of what their life was like in the Midwest when they were doing all that spy stuff. And then, a lot of that comes up in really fun, interesting, beautiful ways, which, like in the Black Widow movie came up with that song, American Pie. And there's just a lot of complexity between me and Florence's character, which I love."
"And also they're two people that... she can't stand him, but she needs someone because she's incomplete in a certain way that he may be able to help her with. I think that's always so beautiful. Because I feel like our relationships are always so... Sometimes we don't get to choose the people that complete us. The people that we really need. I think that they exemplify that in their own way. It will be fun to bring that to life in the movie."
Thunderbolts is currently slated to hit theaters on July 25, 2025. The film is currently wedged between Fantastic Four (May 2, 2025) and Blade (November 7, 2025). Phase 6 then closes out the Multiverse Saga with Avengers: The Kang Dynasty (May 1, 2026) and Avengers: Secret Wars (May 7, 2027).
Contrary to Harbour's comments above regarding Thunderbolts' callbacks to Black Widow, director Jake Schreier has previously stated that it would be a big mistake to view Thunderbolts as a direct sequel.
"I wouldn't look at this as a sequel at all. And we don't talk about it that way," said Schreier back in August, prior to the SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes.
Confirmed members of theThunderbolts team include Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), U.S. Agent (Wyatt Russell), Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), Red Guardian (David Harbour), and Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko). Steven Yeun has also been leaked as portraying The Sentry in the film.
Additionally, Ayo Edebiri has an undisclosed role and Harrison Ford's Thunderbolt Ross is expected to appear.
The project is a reunion of the creative team behind Netflix's Beef as Schreier directs from a script co-written by the series' creator, Sung "Sonny" Jin Lee.