Marvel Studios shows no signs of slowing down as the studio prepares to launch its 36th feature film, Thunderbolts*, in theaters this weekend. The asterisk is important to the title because this is the team we get when the Avengers are not available. Of course, they haven’t been available for quite some time as the events of Avengers: Endgame brought an end to the Infinity Saga. But anyway, we can thank an international poster for this.

There’s an argument to be made that Thunderbolts* is the film that brings the misfits together. That they’re the Marvel version of the Suicide Squad. I think both teams can co-exist in their own universes–Thunderbolts* in the MCU and the Suicide Squad in the DC Universe or whatever goes for its name these days. The team of anti-heroes in Thunderbolts* brings their own unique brand of chemistry and it works for the larger benefit of the Marvel film.

There’s a lot that can be said about Thunderbolts* and even more that can be said after the film opens. Believe me, there’s so much more that I want to say about the film, what it means for the Marvel Cinematic Universe going forward, and especially what it represents for fighting the stigma that is depression and loneliness.

Please make sure to stay for the credits as there is both a mid-credit scene and a post-credit scene in typical Marvel fashion.

I’ll have more to say below the photo. Anything previously seen in clip or trailer is fair game. Otherwise, you might want to stop reading now.

We need to talk about the Avengers: Doomsday casting announcement. It’s a spoiler for the film. But then again, the trailers, clips and approved images can also speak to this to some extent. Put it this way, Marvel would have been better off waiting for the announcement so that audiences would have been surprised rather than clue us in as to which actor is not going to survive the film. The same marketing mistake that spoiled the 2022 release of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is doing the same thing again.

As far as the Marvel brand is concerned, Eric Pearson and Joanna Calo’s script features a good amount of humor. But then again, I’d expect this with any team-up featuring both Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh) and Alexei Shostakov/Red Guardian (David Harbour). It pays off from their previous appearance in Black Widow. There’s a lot of ways that many people will read into this film as a sequel to Black Widow but it’s so much more than that. Hell, we’re also getting characters making live-action appearances for the first time since Ant-Man and the Wasp or The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. The glue that ties them all together: Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus).

Yelana Belova, Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan), Red Guardian, Ava Starr/Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), Antonia Dreykov/Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko) and John Walker (Wyatt Russell) are unconventional anti-heroes. A number of them will have to confront the darkest parts of their past, especially once The Void (Lewis Pullman) is unleashed. There’s only so many ways that this can go down. This is a team that could easily tear each other apart as any band of misfits might. Or perhaps they will rise up to the challenge of getting redemption and become something bigger. Maybe even fill a void in the larger Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Depression and loneliness play into the larger themes of Thunderbolts* through a number of characters. In a way, it’s a showcase of how filmmakers can utilize cinema as a whole to help play a role in fighting the stigma. Being someone who has battled depression and shut down when I’m at my worst, it’s a theme that should certainly resonate with many people.

What about the asterisk in the Thunderbolts* title? Is this really because the Avengers are unavailable or is this another case of Kevin Feige being cagey? Given the place in the timeline, the film comes after former President Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross (Harrison Ford) asked Sam Wilson/Captain America (Anthony Mackie) to form a new Avengers team. I’m curious as to what, if any, progress been made on that front. A previous trailer has de Fontaine telling a Congressional committee that “The Avengers are not coming.” What does this CIA director mean by this? I guess we’ll see.

DIRECTOR: Jake Schreier
SCREENWRITERS: Eric Pearson and Joanna Calo
CAST: Florence Pugh, Sebastian Stan, Wyatt Russell, Olga Kurylenko, Lewis Pullman, Geraldine Viswanathan, Chris Bauer, Wendell Pierce, with David Harbour, with Hannah John-Kamen, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus

Marvel Studios will release Thunderbolts* in theaters on May 2, 2025. Grade: 4/5

Please subscribe to Solzy on Buttondown and visit Dugout Dirt.