Here's a late-night shocker as Deadline is reporting that Marvel Studios has paused production indefinitely on Jake Schreier's Thunderbolts due to the ongoing writers strike.
The ensemble superhero film was previously set to start filming in three weeks in Atlanta, but the new plan is to resume production once the strike has ended, which currently has no end date in sight. It's still on track to meet its Summer 2024 release date, but that is subject to change if the strike lasts another four-to-six weeks.
This latest move comes on the heels of Marvel pausing production on Wonder Man earlier this week and a little under a month after they decided to shut down production on Blade, which was also expected to start shooting in June. While the former will resume once the strike is over, there is no update on the Mahershala Ali-starrer, although it seems probable that it will end up being pushed back even further since True Detective creator Nic Pizzolatto was in the midst of a rewrite when production was halted.
All eyes are now on Shawn Levy's Deadpool 3, which recently began filming. It doesn't seem like the long-awaited Ryan Reynolds/Hugh Jackman team-up will be postponed for the time being, but it's certainly something to monitor. Marvel Studios does plan ahead on all of their films, so anything that isn't able to be completed during principal photography - including any scenes that require on-set rewrites - will be added to the reshoot schedule, which will happen after the strike is over.
Captain America: New World Order remains unaffected and should be nearing the end of its shoot in a few weeks. Fantastic Four also remains on track, and will likely only be affected if the strike lasts longer than six months.
Thunderbolts features Sebastian Stan (Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier), Florence Pugh (Yelena Belova), Wyatt Russell (John Walker/U.S. Agent), Olga Kurylenko as (Antonia Dreykov/Taskmaster), David Harbour (Alexei Shostakov/Red Guardian), Hannah John-Kamen (Ava Starr/Ghost), Julia Louis-Dreyfus (Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine), Harrison Ford (President Thaddeus Ross), Ayo Edebiri, and Steven Yeun.
Wonder Man features Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (Simon Williams/Wonder Man), Ben Kingsley (Trevor Slattery), Demetrius Grosse (Eric Williams/Grim Reaper), Ed Harris (Neal Saroyan), Josh Gad, and Lauren Glazier.
Deadpool 3 features Ryan Reynolds (Wade Wilson/Deadpool), Hugh Jackman (Logan/Wolverine), Leslie Uggams (Blind Al), Karan Soni (Dopinder), Morena Baccarin (Vanessa Carlysle), Stefan Kapičić (Piotr Rasputin/Colossus), Rob Delaney (Peter W.), Brianna Hildebrand (Negasonic Teenage Warhead), Shioli Kutsuna (Yukio), Emma Corrin, and Matthew Macfadyen.
Thunderbolts is tentatively scheduled to hit theaters on July 26, 2024, while Wonder Man is expected TBD 2024/2025. Deadpool 3 is set for November 8, 2024.