Thunderbolts* is a movie one would assume they really need to do their homework for.
Yelena Belova, Bucky Barnes, Red Guardian, Ghost, Taskmaster and John Walker are all part of the team. To know Yelena, viewers would have to watch both Hawkeye and Black Widow or at least just the latter. To know Bucky's full story, there's a long watch list. Captain America, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Captain America: Civil War, and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier would all be essential viewing, but he's appeared in multiple Avengers movies as well. Black Widow would also be essential to understand Red Guardian and Taskmaster's characters. For Ghost, audiences need to have seen Ant-Man and the Wasp. Finally, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier is once again essential viewing if you want to know John Walker.
It's a pretty long watch list, but Jake Schreier, the director of Thunderbolts*, and Kevin Feige don't want audiences to have to have seen every one of those to understand this movie. Schreier elaborated in an interview with Collider.
“It starts with Kevin [Feige] saying, “Hey, make it work if people haven't seen any of these things.” And I think it's great of him to recognize that. It's just a delicate dance with a great group of writers to try to find ways to, without it feeling heavily expositional, allude to things that people who have, like when Yelena says, “I thought it started when my sister died.” You're defining for a new audience that she has a sister that's died. Obviously, if you've watched these movies, there's a whole wealth of emotional resonance if you know who she's talking about and the story that she's referring to. But I think we always look for ways to kind of drop those ideas in so you could follow along with this thing, and then also just really make it its own story to have a full arc and not feel like you're being dropped in in the middle of an installment.”
It seems like Schreier and Feige definitely understand that, while the MCU has a massive and very dedicated fan base, not everyone is going to watch every MCU project. Not everyone bothers with the Disney+ shows, two of which play into Thunderbolts*. Working around that without a massive amount of exposition is definitely not an easy task.
In regards to Buck Barnes, a character that has been in every single phase of the MCU since Phase One, Schreier talked about continuing his arc while making it unique to Thunderbolts*.
“I think everyone was really game to do something new, but obviously when you're working with someone like Sebastian Stan, they're such an incredible actor, but they've also been in so many of these movies, and they're such an icon within the world, and in the world in general, that character has processed a lot of the things that our characters have yet to process. So, you have to find a way to give that character a new arc in this world, having processed that trauma and, in theory, being in a place of balance but now needing a new problem.”
“We thought what would be interesting is: where do you go once you have gotten through that?” He continued. “You could imagine Bucky thinking, "Maybe it's time to approach this from a new angle and help people through a new path," and trying to get into politics, and then realizing, as anyone, I think, would, how frustrating politics can be. Maybe, in fact, the right home for him all along has been with a team that you never would expect, with people who have also gone through that trauma, and that he has something particular to offer them as someone who has already gone through this. That was really fun to watch Sebastian get to play.”
Seeing Bucky Barnes enter the world of politics will be an interesting plot point especially considering the world saw him as a villain for many years.
What are your thoughts on Thunderbolts*? Let us know in the comments!