Previous reports have indicated that Marvel Studios' Thunderbolts movie was gearing up to shoot this summer, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus has now confirmed that production is scheduled to get underway in June.
The Seinfeld star wasn't willing to divulge much more about the project during an interview with Variety, but she did reveal that she's looking forward to an expanded role for her character, Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, and wants to get in on the action this time.
“I actually pitched it,” she tells the trade. “I told them I really, really want to fight. We’ll see if that happens. I haven’t seen the script yet.”
The duplicitous "Val" was introduced in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier before going on to appear in Black Widow and the more recent Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. We've only seen her use manipulation to achieve her goals thus far, but assume she's more than capable of throwing down in a scrap should the need arise.
Louis-Dreyfus also addressed the Contessa's unique look, which it sounds like she may have had some say in.
“In the original comic she has sort of a white streak in her hair, but I thought purple would make it a little more of this world today,” she said of the purple streak her character sports. “And I didn’t want o her to look too much like Cruella, or anything like that.”
Plot wise, all we really know about the movie is that it will see Val form a team consisting of Red Guardian (David Harbour), Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), Bucky Barnes/The Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan), John Walker/U.S. Agent (Wyatt Russell), and Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko).
Harrison Ford will replace the late William Hurt as Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross, who may wind up transforming into the Red Hulk.
Jake Schreier (Robot and Frank, Dave) is set to direct, with Black Widow scribe Eric Pearson penning the script.
Thunderbolts is currently slated to open on July 26, 2024.