It's been a long road for Marvel's Thunderbolts* to cinemas as the Hollywood Writers' Strike severely impacted the film's production schedule.
As such, the extra time afforded extra time to polish the script, which saw three scribes apply their trade to the finished product: Eric Pearson (Thor: Ragnarok, Black Widow), Lee Sung Jin (Beef), and Joanna Calo (The Bear, Bojack Horseman).
Along the way, various ideas and plot threads ended up being left on the cutting room floor, including Man-Thing, Baron Zemo, a larger role for Taskmaster, and US Agent turning into a Hulk-like monster.
It's also been revealed that with the screenplay first being worked on by Pearson in 2021, the Thunderbolts* were originally intended to have a tie-in to Avengers: The Kang Dynasty.
However, Jonathan Majors' legal trouble led to him being fired by Marvel in December 2023, and Marvel Studios ultimately pivoted to Doctor Doom and Robert Downey Jr.
Pearson confirmed this to IGN, stating, "So I was throwing together at the beginning a post-credit sequence that had to deal with Kang."
Another post-credit idea dealt with a dangling plot thread from the Hawkeye Disney+ series.
"[Another idea] had to deal with more of a direct relation to the fact that [Julia Louis-Dreyfus’] Valentina [Allegra de Fontaine] sent Yelena after Clint Barton, after Hawkeye, [for] the Hawkeye show,” said Pearson. “But as time passes, you're like, well, is anyone going to make that connection still to the thing that they haven't seen in two or three years?"
Baron Zemo was also an idea for a post-credit stinger, as Pearson recalled, "There was definitely a [post-credits] tag that I did a million years ago where Zemo is like Keyser Söze. Like he's been pulling the strings from prison in some way. But I don't think that iteration lived longer than like, ‘Hey, what about this?’ ‘Nope, not that."
Thunderbolts* is an upcoming Phase 5 MCU film that now playing in North American theaters. The film is currently slated to close out Phase 5 of the MCU.
Jake Schreier directs from a script written by Eric Pearson, Lee Sung Jin, and Joanna Calo.
The film stars Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier, Florence Pugh as Yelena Belova, David Harbour as Alexei Shostakov / Red Guardian, Hannah John-Kamen as Ava Starr / Ghost, Wyatt Russell as John Walker / U.S. Agent, Olga Kurylenko as Antonia Dreykov / Taskmaster, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Valentina Allegra de Fontaine. Lewis Pullman has also been cast as The Sentry/Void.
Principal photography began on February 26, 2024, wrapped in June.
The film is inspired by the Marvel Comics title of the same name, where the Masters of Evil disguised themselves as The Avengers after the apparent death of the team after the Onslaught saga. Led by Baron Zemo, the group surmised that by filling the vacuum of superpowered champions, they could gain access to all the secrets of The Avengers and S.H.I.E.L.D.
Later incarnations of the team would typically consist of U.S.-controlled supervillains who attempt to earn redemption and/or pardons by executing covert missions.
About Thunderbolts*
In Thunderbolts*, Marvel Studios assembles an unconventional team of antiheroes — Yelena Belova, Bucky Barnes, Red Guardian, Ghost, Taskmaster and John Walker. After finding themselves ensnared in a death trap set by Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, these disillusioned castoffs must embark on a dangerous mission that will force them to confront the darkest corners of their pasts. Will this dysfunctional group tear themselves apart, or find redemption and unite as something much more before it’s too late?