With Deadpool, Venom and Loki, Marvel already has very popular anti-heroes in its universe. What the MCU is still lacking, however, is a counterpart to DC's Suicide Squad - but that is set to hit theaters in 2024: The talk is of the "Thunderbolts". The group consists of several characters, all of whom we have already had the pleasure of seeing in the one or other Marvel production. The movie will be the conclusion of Phase 5 of the MCU - so it's likely not that unimportant for the franchise. In order to keep you up to date, we have put together all the known information about the cast, production and plot in this article. Enjoy!

The Thunderbolts Cast

The cast around the "Thunderbolts" is mostly known and has some familiar names ready. But new actors are also joining the MCU for this film.

Thunderbolts

First, let's take a closer look at the eponymous Thunderbolts: The group is led by Allegra de Fontaine, played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus. We already know her from "The Falcon and the Winter Soldier". In the 2020 series, there are already early references to the Thunderbolts, as de Fontaine is apparently trying to recruit people with special abilities. In the final episode, she also recruits the second member of the group, John Walker, played by Wyatt Russell. The character has had a rather tragic part thus far: Walker was also initiated the Super-Soldier Serum and was meant to take over Captain America's legacy. Sadly, with his ego, he mostly gets in his own way, leaving Sam Wilson aka Falcon to take over the role. Still, Walker has similar powers to Cap, though not as sophisticated yet.

He is not the only character around Captain America, which will play a part in the Thunderbolts: Cap's best friend Bucky Barnes is also involved, again embodied by Sebastian Stan. How Walker and Bucky will work together is yet to be seen. After all, the two battled each other in "The Falcon and the Winter Soldier". Besides, Bucky is known more as a loner than a team player.

A Black Widow will also join the group, namely Natasha's sister Yelena Belova. The last time we saw Yelena was in "Hawkeye", where she wanted to take revenge on Clint Barton as she blames him for Natasha's death. Her powers are comparable to her sister's, even though Natasha was the more powerful of the two. Yelena is again played by the British actress Florence Pugh.

Her mentor Red Guardian is also part of the movie - so we can expect a fair amount of humor as well. The Red Guardian is primarily known for his strength - it remains to be seen whether he will fit better into his suit again since the movie "Black Widow". The Red Guardian is again played by "Stranger Things" star David Harbour.

Besides Yelena and the Red Guardian, another character from "Black Widow" has made it to the Thunderbolts. While she was an antagonist in the 2021 film, she is now one of their allies: We're talking about Taskmaster. Her real name is Antonia Dreykov. She is the daughter of the Russian general who controls the Red Room. He has brainwashed his own daughter and modified her in a way that her only mission is to eliminate enemies. She is particularly assisted in this task by an inserted microchip. It allows her to imitate all of her opponents' movements. Taskmaster is again played by Ukrainian model Olga Kurylenko.

The last member we can look forward to is Ghost, who we already know from "Ant-Man and the Wasp". Ghost, whose real name is Ava Starr, got her superpower in an accident: when an experiment on the quantum realm failed, her parents died before her eyes. Ava survived, however, and was dematerialized. From now on, she can move through objects at will and turn invisible. She is once again played by Hannah John-Kamen.

A new actor is being cast for the role of General Ross, since the former actor William Hurt passed away in 2022. As in "Captain America 4", his role will be assumed by none other than Harrison Ford.

The Newbies

A key role will be played by "The Walking Dead" star Steven Yeun, who joined the cast in February 2023. However, nothing official is known about his role yet. One Marvel character associated with his name is the Sentry, aka Robert Reynolds. Reynolds is considered one of the strongest superheroes in the comics. He also gets the Super-Soldier Serum, which grants him the power of a thousand exploding suns. This allows him to effortlessly take on fighters like the Hulk, Thor, or Carnage. However, he has a very unstable psyche, which is why he usually tries to stay out of trouble or not fight with full force. Well, actually, he is one of the good guys - so if the character choice for Steven Yeun really falls on Sentry, we are excited to find out what Marvel will make of the superhero. After all, nothing is known about an antagonist in "Thunderbolt" just yet.

Also new to the MCU is Ayo Edebiri. The American actress most recently had a speaking part in "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse". She also stars in the series "The Bear", whose second season has just begun on Disney+. Nothing is known about her role in "Thunderbolts" yet. In a statement, though, it can be read that she will take on a rather small part.

Where's Daniel Brühl?

One big question fans are wondering regarding the cast is: Where is Daniel Brühl in the role of Baron Zemo? He has an important role in the comics when it comes to the Thunderbolts. So far, however, there has not been any official word on whether Daniel Brühl will be returning to his role. Zemo's character was last explored further in "The Falcon and the Winter Soldier". There he revealed his profound hatred for superheroes by looking for ways to kill the Flag-Smasher Super-Soldiers. It all looked promising for a major future in the MCU. Therefore, it seems reasonable for us to assume that he will appear in one form or another in "Thunderbolts". In light of Zemo's particular righteous anger towards superheroes, that would make perfect sense.

Thunderbolts x Suicide Squad

Since we sadly have nothing to share about the plot at the moment, let's take a closer look at the "Thunderbolts" comic book original and compare it to its counterpart from the DCEU. The Thunderbolts, similar to the Suicide Squad, are not a typical superhero team. They are made up of unconventional individuals who wouldn't be considered to be heroes in the first place. The crucial difference, though, lies in their motive: while the Suicide Squad is literally forced to complete dangerous missions with little chance of survival, the Thunderbolts have a common goal. Their initiator is Baron Helmut Zemo, a criminal strategist and nemesis of Captain America. He came up with the idea of reforming criminals and presenting them to the public as heroes.

Originally formed as the Masters of Evil, the group had become unemployed after the Earth's heroes were nearly wiped out. Zemo saw an opportunity to establish superhero teams in order to manipulate the public for more power. He recruited a first team, including Goliath, Fixer, Screaming Mimi, Beetle and Moonstone. Under new identities such as Citizen V, Atlas, Techno, Songbird, MACH-1 and Meteorite, the villains disguised themselves as heroes.

However, Zemo's plan for global domination evolved into an unexpected twist when his team members actually became heroes and settled their debt to society. After Zemo's fall, numerous well-known characters from the Marvel universe became part of the Thunderbolts family at various points in time. Characters like Deadpool, Abomination, Whiplash, Venom, Norman Osborn and many others spent their time with the Thunderbolts, as well as most of the characters now announced for the planned movie adaptation. Even some established heroes like Hawkeye, America Chavez and Spectrum were at times part of the team or are even part of the current squad. Interestingly, Zemo himself also joined the group, sometimes actually reforming, but mostly returning to his roots as a villain.

This dynamic team and the multitude of characters clearly offer plenty of potential for an action-packed and exciting movie - or even more.

Production

Jake Schreier will direct "Thunderbolts". In 2012, Schreier drew attention to himself with the critically acclaimed film "Robot & Frank" and three years later enjoyed great success with the book adaptation of "Paper Towns". The screenplay is penned by two authors at once: First, by Eric Pearson, who already worked on the MCU productions "Thor: Ragnarok" and "Black Widow". And the other writer is Lee Sung Jin, who most recently worked on the Netflix series "Beef". Sung Jin voiced his excitement about working with Jake Schreier again, who was likewise involved in "Beef". There, in turn, Steven Yeun played one of the main roles, who has now also been cast in "Thunderbolts". So we can expect an already well-coordinated team.

However, filming has not yet begun and will be postponed for the time being due to the actors' strike. In fact, the movie was supposed to be released in July 2024, but has been pushed back to December 20, 2024. We'll have to wait and see if this is indeed the date that the movie will hit theaters.