We first met Valentina Allegra de Fontaine in The Falcon and The Winter Soldier when she recruited U.S. Agent for reasons which, at the time, weren't made clear.
She'd later task Yelena Belova with killing Clint Barton - on behalf of Eleanor Bishop - and was revealed as the new Director of the C.I.A. in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.
In Thunderbolts*, it sounds like we'll finally learn what Val is up to in the MCU. "It's a completely different beast," Julia Louis-Dreyfus says of the movie in an interview with Entertainment Weekly. "[It's] a real opportunity for me to really explore the Val character. You really get to know what she's made of, and even a lot of her backstory. She's in it to win it."
"You're going to see her entire plan unfold," the actor added with a smile. "It has a lot of mystery to it and there's some twists and turns that you don't see coming, which are the best kind. There's a lot of suspense, which is very groovy."
"Her intentions aren't necessarily pure," Louis-Dreyfus continued. "You've got hero, you've got anti-hero, you have villain...is there such a thing as an anti-villain?" [Some] of her earlier schemes are going to be revealed, and you're going to get a better understanding of why she behaves the way she does."
As for her dynamic with the team, it appears Val won't be quite as in control of the Thunderbolts as she'd like. "She is about four steps ahead all the time, or at least she thinks she is until she's not," she teased. "All of these characters have worked for her under certain circumstances, so she would fancy herself as a bit of a puppet master, and she's very power-hungry."
"She's a user of anti-heroes. She definitely sees herself as the leader, the organizer of this group, but I'm not sure they see her as such."
Val is undoubtedly one of the most intriguing characters we've met in the Multiverse Saga and the prevailing opinion right now is that she likely wants The Sentry for some nefarious purpose. Then again, how better to cement her position of power than by having the world's most powerful superhuman on hand?
Some new Thunderbolts* stills have also been released confirming that Valentina Allegra de Fontaine's group, OXE, will appear in the movie. Bucky, meanwhile, appears to have captured several members of the team and we later see them alongside The Sentry as "Bob."
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.
The cast of Thunderbolts* will be led by 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.