The Marvel Cinematic Universe is always expanding, thanks to both movies and original content streaming with a Disney+ subscription. One of the most highly anticipated upcoming Marvel movies is Jake Schreier's Thunderbolts. That blockbuster will unite various villains and antiheroes from the shared universe, including Black Widow's Alexei/ Red Guardian and Yelena, played by David Harbour and Florence Pugh respectively. And Harbour teased their relationship in Thunderbolts.
The cast of Thunderbolts is stacked, and it should be fascinating to see how the motley crew interacts on the big screen. What we know about Thunderbolts is limited, but there are already stakes with the upcoming reunion of Red Guardian and Yelena. The Stranger Things star spoke with ScreenRant about what to expect from his MCU crossover event, offering:
So they have a lot of unexplored history. There's a lot of details that the director, Jake, has gone into the great care of what their life was like in the Midwest when they were doing all that spy stuff. And then, a lot of that comes up in really fun, interesting, beautiful ways, which, like in the Black Widow movie came up with that song, American Pie. And there's just a lot of complexity between me and Florence's character, which I love.
He's not wrong. Black Widow featured a flashback of this makeshift family's life in the states, and how it all got taken away from them. But there's so much about that time the audience doesn't know, and it looks like Thunderbolts will help to fill in some of the blanks for that unit.
Those of us who spent years watching the Marvel movies in order patiently awaited the release of Black Widow, which finally revealed the title character's mysterious backstory. But there's still plenty of time unaccounted for, including what happened to Harbour's character during The Snap and The Blip. As we learned in Hawkeye, Yelena was snapped out of existence and only returned thanks to her sister's sacrifice.
Yelena has quickly become a fan-favorite MCU character, so moviegoers will likely be quite focused on her story in Thunderbolts. David Harbour spoke more about the way she and Alexei will interact in the villain-centric project, offering:
And also they're two people that... she can't stand, but she needs some because she's incomplete in a certain way that he may be able to help her with. I think that's always so beautiful. Because I feel like our relationships are always so... Sometimes we don't get to choose the people that complete us. The people that we really need. I think that they exemplify that in their own way. It will be fun to bring that to life in the movie.
In addition to this two characters, there will be another major Black Widow connection in Thunderbolts. Namely Olga Kurylenko's Taskmaster, who was one of the solo movie's big villains. And there's no telling what this trio's interaction will be like.
Unfortunately for hardcore fans, Thunderbolts ended up being delayed as a result of the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. But fan excitement seems buoyed thanks to its killer cast, including Harrison Ford.
Thunderbolts is currently expected to arrive in theaters on July 25th, 2025. In the meantime, check out the 2024 movie release dates to plan your next movie experience.
