Will Thunderbolts ever happen? The movie is gearing up to begin production and still adding actors to its cast, but yesterday evening, Disney CEO Bob Iger only mentioned Captain America: Brave New World and Fantastic Four while discussing Marvel Studios' 2025 offerings.
Talking to Entertainment Tonight about her role in Dune: Part Two, Black Widow and Hawkeye star Florence Pugh confirmed that she's heading to Atlanta imminently to begin shooting her role as Yelena Belova (who we know has some sort of past relationship with "Val").
"It kind of feels like it still might not happen because of the amount of times it has been paused, which is just a natural feeling," the actress admitted. "But I’m going straight after this. When we’re done with press, I’m going to Atlanta and start doing some prep and do a bit more press with you guys, and then I’m off - I’m shooting."
As far as we're aware, Thunderbolts isn't in trouble; instead, it was one of those movies which got caught up in last year's WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes at the worst possible time, resulting in it being pushed back from this December well into next summer.
Despite a little uncertainty, Pugh admitted she's excited to suit up as the MCU's new Black Widow again.
"[It's] wonderful. When we shot Black Widow, we thought we were going to shoot the next movie relatively sooner than we did, and it’s just been this thing that’s been looming, that we’ve been waiting to shoot at some point in the future, and now it’s finally happening, so it feels surreal, but it's coming back. Yelena's coming back."
Thunderbolts' confirmed cast members include Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, 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, and Olga Kurylenko as Taskmaster.
Recently, Geraldine Viswanathan replaced Ayo Edebiri in an undisclosed role, while Lewis Pullman has taken over as The Sentry following Steve Yeun's shock departure from the movie. Both he and Edebiri are said to have left due to scheduling issues caused by the delays Pugh is referring to above.
Written by Eric Pearson and Lee Sung Jin, and directed by Jake Schreier, Thunderbolts is currently set to be released in theaters on July 25, 2025.