The Thunderbolts* Revealed – And They Seem Familiar

Marvel hasn’t told us much about Thunderbolts*, one of the films they have planned for 2025 meant to bring moviegoers back around to superhero franchise movies. No one even knew what that asterisk in the title was about. But Disney held a special mini-D23 in the country of Brazil over the weekend, and one of the trailers shown off was essentially the first-ever real look at what Thunderbolts* is and what it’s trying to be.

And….hmm.

Stop me if you’ve heard this before: a ragtag band of misfits who don’t know what they’re doing is now being sent on a top-secret mission of destruction by a government agency who considers them expendable. Lately DC has been adapting and re-adapting The Suicide Squad like there’s no tomorrow, and now the fever has spread to Marvel? What gives? Where’s the demand?

Okay, it’s not entirely Marvel Studios‘ fault that Thunderbolts, asterisk or no, steals from Suicide Squad. For every thing one of the Big Two Comic Companies did that caught on, there was a ripoff equivalent on the other side. One company has Darkseid, the other has Thanos. One has Catwoman, the other has Black Cat. One has Suicide Squad, the other has Thunderbolts.

And the Marvel version of Amanda Waller is none other than Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, better known as “the character Julia Louis-Dreyfus is.” She’s the one who brought the Thunderbolts* together: Yelena and Red Guardian from the Black Widow movie, Bucky from the Captain America movies, Ghost, John Walker, and finally…..Bob. Just Bob. Don’t be fooled by his Bob-ness; there may be more to him…

As for that asterisk, the trailer does go into it a bit. Seems they don’t like the name very much and consider it temporary. But whether they prefer it or not, it’ll be on the marquees come May 2, when Thunderbolts* releases in theaters.