'Thunderbolts*' Assemble: Team of Marvel misfits, anti-heroes take on deeper, darker threat
There's a darker, more powerful and harder-to-take-down threat facing the Marvel Universe, and a reject group of D-list anti-heroes has assembled to face it.
The Thunderbolts* are a team of familiar MCU faces who reluctantly work together to stop an ominous force. It's a tormented threat that feels deeply familiar to us here in the real world.
Florence Pugh is back as "Black Widow's" Yelena Belova.
"Coming back to her and this character in this way, is just so exciting," she says. "We haven't seen what's been going on with her since 'Hawkeye' and 'Black Widow.' A lot has happened to her."
Belova is feeling lost and empty. In the film, she's reunited with her father, Alexei Shostakov/Red Guardian, who's also searching for purpose.
"We were exploring an issue that is near and dear to all of our hearts in the modern world, which is being isolated and being anxious and unfulfilled," says David Harbour, who is reprising his role as the Russian anti-hero. "I think we all suffer from this and not understanding that it really is human connection that makes us stronger."
They pick up a few other familiar MCU faces along the way - a team of Marvel misfits who don't consider themselves super or heroes.
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That includes Bucky Barens, the Winter Soldier. Oscar nominee Sebastian Stan is back in the popular role.
"I think the storyline of the stakes here at that you have to deal with your own (stuff), or else it's going to ruin and rule your life," Stan says. "It's obviously very relatable and I think that it's not something that you're always seeing in the Marvel Universe."
Wyatt Russell returns as John Walker, a one-time Captain America.
"It's nice to be able to come back in a story that you don't need to have watched like 35 other Marvel movies to understand, or feel a connection with these characters," Russell says.
Ava Starr/Ghost from "Ant-Man and the Wasp" is also on board.
"They've all come into this movie from all different backgrounds and traumas," says Hannah John-Kamen, who plays Starr. "What I think is beautiful in the message, as well in building a team, is that you don't have to suffer alone. That's not a weakness, that's a strength."
As the Thunderbolts* escape their pasts and right their own wrongs, they work together to take down a deeper, darker threat, and form a new kind of Avengers.
Julia Louis-Dreyfus returns as Valentina Allegra de Fontaine.
"I have a lot of juicy material to seek sink my teeth into and I had a ball doing it," Louis-Dreyfus says. "She's complicated. Very."
She now owns the former Avengers tower, and she has a new assistant, Mel, played by Marvel newcomer Geraldine Viswanathan.
"This is unbelievably exciting, just kind of beyond," Viswanathan says. "It's such a dream. To get to do it in this company is pretty, pretty cool."
Also new to the MCU is Lewis Pullman as Bob. It's a mysterious, layered kind of role.
"It's very complex," says Pullman, protecting all secrets and spoilers. "We were very encouraged to explore those gray areas of what it means to be bad or good."
"It's such an exciting feeling," Pugh says. "It's really lovely that this is our final point. This is where our characters are, this is where we've grown. This is hopefully going to lead to something even more magical in the future."
"Thunderbolts*" is in theaters nationwide Friday, May 2.
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