The Disney D23 Expo has had a solid amount of reveals and footage for various Marvel films and shows in production. Kevin Feige revealed the main roster for the upcoming Thunderbolts film. That cast is:
- Sebastian Stan as the Winter Soldier
- Florence Pugh as Yelena Belova/Black Widow II
- David Harbour as Red Guardian
- Wyatt Russell as John Walker/USAgent
- Hannah John-Kamen as Ghost
- Olga Kurylenko as Taskmaster
- Julia Louis-Dreyfuss as Contessa
The #Thunderbolts cast announced David Harbor and Sebastian Stan along names we knew in including Florence Pugh #D23Expo pic.twitter.com/WVDJ9Y6wiu
— Sabina Graves 🔜 🎃 (@SabinaHasNoR) September 10, 2022
In the comics that originally began with Kurt Busiek and Mark Bagley in 1997, the Thunderbolts are a fan-favourite team that typically consists of bad guys trying their best to be good guys, either of their own volition or sometimes backed by the government. Their most recent incarnation, which doesn’t feature any of the film’s characters, consists of heroes trying to redeem the overall Thunderbolts name.
The MCU version of the Thunderbolts mostly feature characters who were in the team at some point or another in the comics, with the exception being Belova and Guardian. Still, their inclusion isn’t too surprising, since the end of Black Widow revealed that Contessa had Yelena under her employ. And while we’ve known for a while that she’s had her hooks into Walker, the other half of the team are some intriguing inclusions: we never saw her interact with Bucky in Falcon & Winter Soldier; Ghost hasn’t been seen since Ant-Man & the Wasp all the way back in 2018; and Taskmaster fled with her fellow Widows after Yelena and Natasha cured them all from mind control.
Directed by Jake Schreier from a script by Eric Pearson (Black Widow), Thunderbolts will begin shooting next year, and is currently on track to release in theatres on July 26, 2024.
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