Marvel’s new Thunderbolts trailer is armed to the teeth

The 2023 writers strike and a change in Marvel’s releasing schedule kept director Jake Schreier’s Thunderbolts from hitting theaters when it was initially planned. But the film’s new trailer makes it look like it might have been worth the wait.

Set some time after the events of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Thunderbolts will tell the story of how a number of former Marvel antagonists find themselves being recruited by Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) onto a black ops team that seems like a dark twist on the Avengers. Ex-Black Widow Yelena Bolova (Florence Pugh) appears to be somewhat aimless as she shows up on her father Alexei Shostakov / Red Guardian’s (David Harbour) doorstep and finds him living in squalor. They’re both depressed about what their lives have become — a feeling shared by disgraced super soldier John Walker / U.S. Agent  (Wyatt Russell). 

But whereas both men have taken to staying at home, she’s still active in the field as a lethal spy carrying out missions for whichever shadowy organization is willing to pay her. That’s what makes it a bit surprising when they all seem to show up at the same strange building with other superpowered professional killers like Ava Starr / Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), Antonia Dreykov / Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko). None of them know what to make of Bob (Lewis Pullman), who appears to be a regular person, but definitely isn’t. But when the building’s doorways all slam shut, it’s obvious that they’ve all been brought and potentially trapped there by someone who has plans for them as a group.

It’s not all that clear how much of Thunderbolts will just be about the team learning to work together as they escape the trap that’s been set for them, or how much of the film will focus on them out in the wild alongside Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan). But the movie’s solid cast and the trailer’s shots of some pretty slick action scenes makes Thunderbolts look like it’s going to be a fun ride when it hits theaters on May 2nd, 2025.