In a few days, the upcoming DC TV show Creature Commandos will debut David Harbour as Eric Frankenstein, a member of the title team whom the Stranger Things star will likely play on camera someday too given DC Studios’ preference of having its actors play their characters in both animated and live-action projects. Additionally though, Harbour is reprising Alexei Shostakov, a.k.a. Red Guardian, in Thunderbolts*, which we know will be the second MCU theatrical installment on the 2025 release schedule. While the public is roughly half a year from getting to see this upcoming Marvel movie, Harbour has already seen a cut of it, and after sharing his reaction to the flick with CinemaBlend, it’s getting me very excited for its arrival.
Our own Sean O’Connell spoke with David Harbour for the Creature Commandos junket, but as their conversation was winding down, Sean asked the actor, who’s played in both Marvel and DC’s proverbial sandboxes, how storytellers working within the superhero genre can keep things fresh. When it comes to Marvel, Harbour had this to say:
Marvel is excited by its expansion, to a certain degree. And also, I think they're doing a bit of a course correction around getting too big, in a way, with the Disney+ stuff. I'm very excited for you guys to see Thunderbolts*. Because, I'm impressed with the direction they took that. And it's surprising. It's a real movie. I mean, whether you like it or not, who knows? But… I saw a cut of it, and it's very impressive.
I was already intrigued after watching the first Thunderbolts* trailer, but David Harbour’s comment has be looking forward to what will be the 36th of the Marvel movies in order even more. It’s no secret that the MCU’s movies and TV shows have been a mixed bag in recent years, particularly when it comes to the overabundance of content, but Harbour believes that his next MCU appearance will have no trouble hooking people in. When Sean O’Connell mentioned how he saw the Thunderbolts* Hall H footage at this past summer’s San Diego Comic-Con and was impressed with the conversations shown between Alexei and Florence Pugh’s Yelena Belova as “father” and “daughter”, Harbour perked up and said:
That's what the film allows for. They do the good things that Marvel does well. But they also… they're paying attention to chemistry. And I think there's something about this group that's special. That to me felt like when you watch Scarlett Johanssen and Chris Evans. When you watch these chemistries of people that – not to say that there's romantic ties, but just the chemistry of human beings interrelated. I think that's what we need in these movies. Because we want to identify. We want to have an emotional hook when you see what Downey's doing with this vulnerability, and this humanity. You have all this fun, and then you have – at the center of it – a real person. And I think it's just electric.
Alexei and Yelena are two of the anti-heroes who comprise the titular team, with the others include Sebastian Stan’s Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier, Wyatt Russell’s John Walker/U.S. Agent, Hannah John-Kamen’s Ava Starr/Ghost and Olga Kurylenko’s Antonia Dreykov/Taskmaster. David Harbour continued by saying how it’s the tram dynamic that makes Thunderbolts*, which was directed by Jake Schreier, such a compelling watch. In his words:
I think the problem with all of this stuff is we get lost in the algorithm, or what we think works, or what the data tells us. But you can't… this ineffable quality of human beings interacting with other human beings, that's a special chemistry. It may not be nice. It may be unpleasant. But it has a certain electricity to it. And I think that that's just all over Thunderbolts. And I'm so happy that Jake, the director, was so intent on capturing that. So intent on preserving that, and made that a priority. I was like, ‘Oof, this is good.’
Other important members of the Thunderbolts* cast include Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, Lewis Pullman as Bob/Sentry, Geraldine Viswanathan as Mel, Laurence Fishburne as Bill Foster and Rachel Weisz as Melina Vostokoff, as well as Wendell Pierce and Chris Bauer in undisclosed roles. At one time it was also reported that Harrison Ford would reprise Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” ross in the movie, but now there are conflicting reports about this. You can revisit Alexei and Yelena’s MCU introductions now by streaming Black Widow with a Disney+ subscription.
Thunderbolts* hits the big screen on May 2, 2025, three months after the arrival of Captain America: Brave New World. And for all the people who have a Max subscription, you’ll be able to hear David Harbour’s Frankenstein in Creature Commandos starting on Thursday, December 5.
