In the opening minutes of Thunderbolts*, Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh) delivers a monologue to a security guard who’s protecting the lab she’s about to blow up. She’s tied him up and gagged him, so he has no choice but to listen to her troubles.
“There’s something wrong with me,” she says. “An emptiness. I thought it started when my sister died, but now it feels like something bigger. Just a … void. Or maybe I’m just bored.”
Belova’s depression is the result of a traumatic childhood in which she was groomed to become a cold-blooded assassin, in addition to the years she’s spent killing people and doing terrible things. Depression is also the central theme of the film, which connects her to each of the other antihero misfits she ultimately teams up with, all of whom have either had difficult upbringings or made mistakes that haunt them. But Belova’s description of this pallid, empty state of existence could also characterize the recent history of the MCU. Marvel Studios’ films, in particular, have lacked vibrancy and purpose as its blockbuster formula has grown stale in recent years.
Much like Yelena, the MCU has been in desperate need of a change. And Thunderbolts* is here to provide relief—and, just as importantly, purpose. Suddenly, Marvel movies have their momentum back.
Thunderbolts*, directed by Jake Schreier (Beef), is a big step in the right direction for Marvel Studios. It works in large part because of Pugh’s star power, as she carries this film on her shoulders by injecting Belova with humor, a magnetic charisma, and the kind of emotional depth that we rarely see in superhero narratives. There are plenty of lessons that Marvel can learn from this movie, especially on a visual level, with the use of practical effects and on-location filming making massive impacts on its final appearance.
Thunderbolts* also makes several unexpected and intriguing creative decisions, both visually and structurally. The depiction of Sentry’s (Lewis Pullman) darker half, known as the Void, turning his victims into shadows is simple yet striking, and it provides some of the most shocking moments in recent MCU history. And the film escapes Marvel’s third-act pitfall of centering a massive CGI slugfest to instead feature the Thunderbolts battling the true villain of the film: depression. (The way in which the heroes fight through compartmentalized traumatic memories is a bit on the nose, but it’s a unique conceptual departure from the Marvel norm that coalesces well with the rest of the film’s theme.)
More on ‘Thunderbolts*’
For all that makes Thunderbolts* unique, it still has some familiar traits of MCU projects, including an (over)abundance of quips and, crucially, an obligation to build toward Marvel’s future. Although the movie forgoes a true ending to its story to tease where the MCU is headed next, Thunderbolts* deftly executes a final twist that answers, once and for all, what that asterisk in the film’s title signifies: The team’s official name by the end of the movie is not the Thunderbolts but the New Avengers.
After Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) nearly causes yet another doomsday event in New York City, the CIA director spins her influential role in Sentry’s attack into a press opportunity to promote her new superteam. “For years, I have been working secretly to develop a new age of protection,” she says. “Today, the citizens of the United States need that protection, and thanks to my hard work, they got it. Ladies and gentlemen, meet the New Avengers.”
Beyond the mere rebranding of this team of reformed villains and antiheroes, this announcement has significant implications for the rest of the MCU. The Avengers broke up after the universe was saved from Thanos in Avengers: Endgame. With many of the team’s members either gone or retired, the world has been waiting for its next group of saviors. The loss of the former Avengers has been a through line in the Multiverse Saga, which Marvel Studios has used to carve a path for new superheroes to be introduced into the MCU as a fresh generation is called upon to save the planet.
However, the absence of the Avengers has also played a big role in the Multiverse Saga’s disjointed nature. Unlike the three chapters of the Infinity Saga, Phases 4 and 5 didn’t have any major crossover events at their conclusions to create a sense that Marvel was constructing a unified, culminating narrative with its interconnected stories. That is, until Thunderbolts* arrived this past week and revealed that it was really an Avengers film in disguise.
Thunderbolts* isn’t as momentous as the typical Avengers crossover. Nor does it feature marquee superheroes like Thor, Iron Man, and Captain America; the absence of such luminaries is pretty much the whole premise of the film. Yet it does answer long-running questions about how the MCU will replace Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.
During the film’s end credits, images of the media storm that follows de Fontaine’s press conference flit across the screen. Magazines, posters, and newspapers cover the hype around the New Avengers’ introduction while also questioning the group’s legitimacy. The brief mid-credits scene is a gag that features Red Guardian (David Harbour) in a grocery store as he pesters a customer to purchase a box of Wheaties cereal that includes his fledgling superteam on it. It’s a silly moment that gives Alexei a chance to bask in his newfound celebrity and the glory of seeing his Wheaties dream come true. At the same time, it underlines his team’s status as the “B-Vengers,” as the New York Post fittingly dubs them in the film, with the customer dropping her box of Wheaties and fleeing the aisle to avoid Alexei by the end of their awkward exchange.
The film’s real stinger comes at the conclusion of the credits. Clocking in at 2 minutes and 54 seconds, it’s the longest post-credits scene in the history of the MCU. Fourteen months after the press conference, the New Avengers have settled into their home at the renovated Avengers Tower. Despite the heroes’ posh makeovers, which include new costumes and hairstyles, they’re still having issues with their public image—and the rights to the Avengers name. Captain America: Brave New World ended with Sam Wilson beginning to assemble his own team of Avengers, and Thunderbolts* addresses the conflict that arises as these two groups try to claim ownership of the name. (Belova says that Wilson has even filed for a trademark on the Avengers name.)
Although most of the stinger is dedicated to firing off a few more jokes—Alexei suggests they change the team’s name to “New Avengerz” to solve their legal difficulties—it also contains some more substantial developments. Fearful of letting his dark side take control again, Bob (Pullman) has given up being the all-powerful Sentry. And Belova references an (outer) “space crisis” that no one will tell them about. As the New Avengers squabble over their team name, they receive a warning about an “extra-dimensional ship” entering the atmosphere. Belova pulls up a satellite image on-screen, and Michael Giacchino’s The Fantastic Four: First Steps theme begins to play as the spaceship comes into focus, the Fantastic Four logo adorning its side.
In addition to passing the baton to First Steps, the scene also sets up the MCU movie that will follow the Fantastic Four reboot: next spring’s Avengers: Doomsday, the first half of the two-part Avengers finale that will conclude the Multiverse Saga. Between last summer’s announcement of Robert Downey Jr.’s return to the MCU in Doomsday as the villainous Doctor Doom and Marvel’s dramatic unveiling of the film’s cast in late March, the studio has steadily ramped up its promotion of its next blockbuster crossover. This stinger is the latest part of that marketing plan, revealing the moment the Fantastic Four finally join the MCU. As they fly into Earth’s atmosphere, Reed Richards, Susan Storm, Johnny Storm, and Ben Grimm are on the verge of joining forces with both Avengers teams, the Wakandans, and even the X-Men to take on Doom.
With First Steps set to introduce the Fantastic Four as the heroes of a 1960s-inspired retro-futuristic world in an alternate universe, the post-credits scene has some troubling implications for Marvel’s First Family. In First Steps, the Fantastic Four will have to defend their Earth from the planet-devouring Galactus and the Silver Surfer (again). And if they’ve seemingly deserted their homeworld to enter the main universe of the MCU, well, that doesn’t bode too well for their chances to succeed in First Steps.
First Steps arrives in theaters in late July, so we’ll find out what happens to the Fantastic Four and their planet soon enough. But for now, Thunderbolts* is a much-needed win for Marvel Studios. Despite its blemishes, it’s an entertaining, mostly self-contained film that isn’t a direct sequel to a previous MCU movie and doesn’t hinge on fan-pleasing nostalgia to drive its success. Thunderbolts* is off to a strong start with critics and audiences, and for the first time in years, the Multiverse Saga seems to be headed for an exciting destination.
