At present, Julia Louis-Dreyfus' Valentina Allegra de Fontaine can primarily be described as a shadowy figure in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. She's popped up in a few different stories – including The Falcon And The Winter Soldier, Black Widow, and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever – and given off a sinister vibe, but we don't yet have a full grasp on her motivations and intentions. That should hopefully change next year with the arrival of director Jake Schreier's Thunderbolts, as the actor's latest comments about the film has us thinking that we'll get more than a couple questions about the character answered by the developing blockbuster.
Julia Louis-Dreyfus is part of the stacked cast in Thunderbolts, the actor set to star alongside David Harbour, Florence Pugh, Olga Kurylenko, Sebastian Stan, Hannah John-Kamen, Wyatt Russell, and more, and she recently expressed her excitement about the film with Vanity Fair. The Seinfeld and Veep star does a career retrospective in the interview, and while discussing her work on the aforementioned Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, she teases what's next for Valentina Allegra de Fontaine:
I'm going to be in Thunderbolts, we're about to start shooting that momentarily. And Valentina is gonna be quite the force. I'm looking forward to working with Florence Pugh again, and Sebastian Stan, Wyatt Russell and David Harbour. I mean it's a really good group of actors, and I'm excited about it. I'm particularly excited about it because it's very character driven this particular movie, so I think it'll be fun. I think Marvel fans will dig it.
While Valentina Allegra de Fontaine has been dancing around the edges of the post-Avengers: Endgame Marvel Cinematic Universe, Julia Louis-Dreyfus' suggestion that the movie is "very character driven" gives us hope that it will give us the opportunity to get to know the character better. She's been operating as a kind of villainous Nick Fury so far, and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever introduced to the canon that Martin Freeman's Everett Ross is her ex-husband, but we want to know more (and we already know that we're going to see her fight).
Director Jake Schreier is reteaming with Beef creator Lee Sung Jin for the film, the latter signing on to write a new draft of the script in late March. The original plan was to have Thunderbolts start production this summer, and there were reports in early May that principal photography would stay on schedule during the on-going WGA Writers Strike, but plans since then have changed, and filming has not yet begun.
Despite the delay of production, Marvel Studios still has Thunderbolts planned on their slate to be released on July 26, 2024. If anything changes, you can be sure that we'll be reporting on it here on CinemaBlend and update our Upcoming Marvel Movies guide (you can also keep track of all small screen happenings with our Upcoming Marvel TV feature).
