D23 Brazil Gives Marvel Fans a Special Look at Thunderbolts*
Marvel’s other big upcoming release, Thunderbolts*, also got a “special look” – which essentially means an extended trailer – at D23 Brazil. A lower-tier team-up movie, Thunderbolts* brings together some of the lesser characters from previous MCU movies and unites them as Marvel’s answer to the Suicide Squad, going on top secret government missions. Florence Pugh, Sebastian Stan, David Harbour, Olga Kurylenko, Wyatt Russell, and Hannah John-Kamen reprise their roles from various films, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus also returns as the team’s Nick Fury equivalent, Valentina Allegra de Fontaine. They’re joined by Lewis Pullman as Sentry. Directed by Jake Schreier, Thunderbolts* will debut in theaters on May 2, 2025, and you can see the new special look from D23 Brazil below:
Some of modern Marvel’s big problems are demonstrated in the opening moments of the Thunderbolts* special look. That chase scene where Bucky shows up plays out for longer than it did in the last trailer, and it should be great. Yelena, Red Guardian, US Agent, and Ghost are being pursued by military vehicles, and they’re about to get blown away, but Bucky shows up and goes Winter Soldier on everyone’s ass, taking out the vehicles single-handedly before turning his attention to the Thunderbolts and going after them. It’s awesome, but Marvel can’t help but undercut it by having Red Guardian make joke after joke, all of which are lame and none of which are actual jokes. “Winter Solider! So cool!” Yes, we know he’s cool because we see him being cool; you acting like a five-year-old and telling us we’re supposed to think he’s cool takes us out of the moment. Marvel used to trust its audience to get the movies, and it trusted its movies to speak for themselves. Now, it has to cue up the audience so we know when to press the green button. Of course, Marvel also used to make good movies that audiences liked without being prompted. Even US Agent acts goofy at the end of the scene when Bucky fires an explosive at their car. I am glad they’re at least letting Bucky be cool, though; that’s more than The Falcon and the Winter Soldier did for him.
The rest of the Thunderbolts* special look is more of the same. There are a few new lines and exchanges, like Yelena and Ghost making fun of US Agent’s aborted turn as Captain America (although I’d argue that the official one is also a dime-store version of Cap) and Red Guardian and Bucky comparing super soldier serums. But it’s mostly stuff we’ve already seen. Julia Louis-Dreyfus is still excruciating as Valentina, and I hope she ends up being the villain just so someone can finally kill her and remove her from the MCU. But in fairness, there were some things I liked about the glorified trailer. Bucky using his metal arm to protect the others from an incoming van is very cool. There are a few indications that the film will at least attempt to have some heart, like the image of Yelena and Red Guardian hugging like a father and daughter. There are also some things that make me wonder if Thunderbolts* will explore the fatalism of some of the characters, such as when Bucky tells Yelena they’ll have to “live with it forever,” likely referring to their murderous pasts. That’s something I wanted to see more of from Bucky after Civil War, and while The Falcon and the Winter Soldier touched on it a little, that show was much more about Falcon than Bucky. There’s an opportunity to do that with Sentry as well, and hopefully, he’ll be more fleshed out than the jokey guy we’ve seen in the trailers. I’m not too hopeful because the Marvel brand is about the opposite of what it used to be nowadays, but there’s a chance Thunderbolts* can be better than Marvel has been in a while.
Let us know what you think of the Thunderbolts* special look in the comments!
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