Thunderbolts* Trailer Reintroduces Us to Marvel’s Also-Rans, Poster Suggests Bad AI Artwork

Movies

Marvel’s next super team is ready to make its on-screen debut, and the studio wants to get people hyped… or at least let people know, in case they have nothing better to do on a Sunday afternoon next May. Thunderbolts*, the movie so important it comes with an asterisk, puts together a bunch of supporting characters from previous MCU films and shows, a few of whom audiences may well remember, and puts them together as the next government-run superhero group. Florence Pugh and David Harbour return as Yelena Belova and Red Guardian, respectively, from Black Widow; Hannah John-Kamen is back as Ghost from Ant-Man and the Wasp; Wyatt Russell makes the leap from Disney+ to the silver screen as John Walker – who, I assume, will now be the US Agent – from The Falcon and the Winter Soldier; Olga Kurylenko reminds us of what the MCU did to Taskmaster in Black Widow; and, last but not least (to us, anyway), Sebastian Stan brings back Bucky Barnes, the Winter Soldier, from all of the Captain America movies, the last two Avengers movies, and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. You can see the Thunderbolts* trailer below:

It looks about how you expect a Marvel movie to look nowadays. The jokiness is turned up to a level that feels like a power drill is boring into your head, partly because the jokes are bad and partly because, as usual, it looks like they’re undercutting what should be dramatic scenes. Look at that first moment, when Yelena visits Red Guardian (who is, of course, still a pathetic buffoon). She asks him if he’s “fulfilled;” they could have mined this for a lot of honest character work with Red Guardian, allowing a good actor like David Harbour to lay a broken man bare and play off another good actor like Florence Pugh. Instead, he just makes a string of lame jokes centered on the word “fulfilled,” like Marvel is begging people to pay attention instead of giving them a real reason to. Sure, it’s possible the scene plays out better in the movie itself, but given the studio’s recent track record, I’m not inclined to believe it will. The presence of Julia Louis-Dreyfuss as Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, one of the most grating characters I’ve ever seen in any form of media, suggests there will be much more of this in the film; thankfully, her screen time is kept to a minimum in the Thunderbolts* trailer, but I’m considering bringing ear plugs to the theater next year.

Based on the Thunderbolts* trailer, it appears Yelena is the central character, and to an extent, I get it. Florence Pugh is popular right now, and she is a very good actress, although Marvel hasn’t utilized her talents very well yet. This could be her chance to shine, or she could be spotlighted at the expense of the best character in this ensemble, who’s mostly sidelined in the trailer. That, of course, is Bucky, who’s only in the background. How you make a movie like this and not center it on the Winter Soldier is beyond me… or it would be if these were normal times. Of course, they’d have to make a woman the lead, and Yelena is definitely the best of the ones in this movie. (I liked Ant-Man and the Wasp, but did we really need to see Ghost ever again?) But they’re burying the guy who could potentially make this good; I don’t think Bucky is suited to be a lead character, but neither are any of the others, and he comes the closest. He’s also one of the few who isn’t a poor man’s version of an Avenger; there are two discount Captain Americas, Black Widow’s little sister, a tech-based fighter like Iron Man, and they even give Ghost a bow and arrow, so she can get her Hawkeye on. Valentina is fulfilling the Nick Fury role, and Lewis Pullman’s Bob – who is Bob Reynolds, the Sentry – is the mild-mannered guy who becomes an unstoppable force. While Bucky has Cap’s super soldier serum and was his best friend, he’s a very different character, and it would’ve been nice to have them lean into this. The poster, which was also released today, suggests this dynamic as well:

Yelena is at the center of the misfit group, so bored by their antics, while Bucky is just another face in the crowd. And speaking of that poster, take a look at the lower left-hand corner, specifically at Bob’s hand; does it appear to have six fingers to you? I’ve looked at it closely, and I’ve read several articles analyzing it, and the consensus is that there is no consensus. Some people think it’s clearly six fingers and likely the result of AI, while others think it’s “weird placement,” and if you trace the fingers to their tips, it comes out to five. I can sort of see the latter argument, but I don’t buy it, largely because Marvel has pulled the original poster above and is now distributing one (which I’ll post below) that cuts off the far left section where the extra finger is visible. You don’t clean up milk you didn’t spill. Also, I don’t have the faith in Marvel’s attention to detail I once did, which is why I don’t give them the benefit of the doubt anymore. So little care goes into their productions now that I find it much more believable that nobody gave this already lame poster a second glance before unveiling it as promotional material than that my eyes are playing tricks on me. Maybe they used AI to make it, or maybe they hired the artist based on his belief that Captain America should have been a woman, but either way, it’s yet another element of Phase 4 and/or 5 that was treated like a post-it note.

Anyway, getting back to the Thunderbolts* trailer, I’m not sure what the actual plot of the movie is. I get the setup: a group of mismatched ne’er-do-wells is put together to be Marvel’s version of the Suicide Squad (which is not what the Thunderbolts were in the comics, nor were they these characters), and car chases ensue. But I don’t know what they’re after, who the villain is, or what the point of their team-up may be. That’s not really a bad thing; these trailers tend to give too much away nowadays. But it does leave me thinking. I’d have assumed their objective was securing Sentry, but he’s in the room when they’re recruited, so that’s not it. (And sending this crew after Sentry would be like sending mall security after Darth Vader.) Yelena’s narration suggests they’re being given an opportunity to make up for their dark pasts, so there must be some element of heroism to it, or at least something good in terms of being a government agent. I wouldn’t be surprised if Valentina is the villain, and they end up going rogue to stop her. The good part about that is that she’ll be gone from the MCU (if they kill her), but the bad part will be that we’ll have to suffer through this insufferable character hamming it up even more as the heavy. But it’s really up in the air as of now. I will also say that I’ve heard a rumor about the ultimate purpose of this film and the meaning of the asterisk in the title, and while I won’t say what it is in case it’s a spoiler, the Thunderbolts* trailer does lend credence to it. We’ve got a long time till this movie is released, and I’m sure there will be at least two more trailers before then, but it’s never too early to start speculating.

Let us know what you think of the Thunderbolts* trailer in the comments!

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