After first playing Red Guardian in 2021's Black Widow, David Harbour will reprise the role in Thunderbolts* next May. If this team is indeed anything like the Suicide Squad, then we don't have high hopes for him surviving and eventually becoming a New Avenger.
Still, Harbour has another comic book gig as he's currently doing the rounds to promote his role as Eric Frankenstein in Max's Creature Commandos.
Talking to CinemaBlend about the DC Studios series, the Stranger Things star expressed his belief that Thunderbolts* is part of Marvel Studios' recent turnaround. "Marvel is excited by its expansion, to a certain degree," he started. "And also, I think they're doing a bit of a course correction around getting too big, in a way, with the Disney Plus stuff."
"I'm very excited for you guys to see Thunderbolts*. Because I'm impressed with the direction they took that. And it's surprising. It's a real movie. I mean, whether you like it or not, who knows? But," the actor teased, "I saw a cut of it, and it's very impressive."
Something that promises to make this movie stand out is the dynamic between each member of the team. The Thunderbolts are far more dysfunctional than The Avengers, for example, and that was a big draw for Harbour.
"They're paying attention to chemistry," he explained. "And I think there's something about this group that's special. That to me felt like when you watch Scarlett Johansson and Chris Evans. When you watch these chemistries of people that – not to say that there's romantic ties, but just the chemistry of human beings interrelated. I think that's what we need in these movies."
"I think the problem with all of this stuff is we get lost in the algorithm, or what we think works, or what the data tells us. But you can't... this ineffable quality of human beings interacting with other human beings, that's a special chemistry," Harbour continued. "It may not be nice. It may be unpleasant. But it has a certain electricity to it. And I think that that's just all over Thunderbolts."
"And I'm so happy that Jake, the director, was so intent on capturing that. So intent on preserving that, and made that a priority. I was like, 'Oof, this is good,'" he concluded.
There are some great insights from Harbour here and he managed to avoid giving anything away this time. In an interview at D23, he revealed who Lewis Pullman is really playing in the movie.
Marvel Studios, and a crew of indie veterans, who definitely sold out, present Thunderbolts*, an irreverent team-up featuring depressed assassin Yelena Belova alongside the MCU’s least anticipated band of misfits.
Confirmed cast members for Thunderbolts* include Florence Pugh as Yelena Boleva, Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes, David Harbour as Red Guardian, Wyatt Russell as U.S. Agent, Hannah John-Kamen as Ghost, Olga Kurylenko as Taskmaster, Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, and Lewis Pullman as "Bob."
Written by Eric Pearson, Lee Sung Jin, and Joanna Calo, and directed by Jake Schreier, Thunderbolts* is currently set to be released in theaters on May 5, 2025.