"Thunderbolts*" Final Trailer: Florence Pugh, Sebastian Stan, and David Harbour Lead a Motley Crew of Antiheroes to Protect an Avengers-Less World From a Rogue Super Being
A new group of misfit heroes, led by Florence Pugh, must step up to protect the world in the latest installment of the MCU—will they rise to the occasion or fall short?
Thunderbolts* is currently tracking around $70 million for its domestic box office opening weekend, which would be slightly lower than the projected debut of Captain America: Brave New World. It’s safe to say that Marvel—once considered a movie studio that couldn’t miss no matter what it released—is finally starting to feel the same economic pressures that other studios have been grappling with for years.
Is it superhero fatigue, like many have been suggesting, or are these dwindling numbers simply the result of fewer people eager to spend their hard-earned cash at the movie theater? You also have to factor in the unstable nature of the Chinese movie market, which has long been a substantial portion of Hollywood’s global box office returns.
Despite Marvel's once-unshakable status as a blockbuster factory, their films—and perhaps the superhero genre as a whole—are starting to feel a little long in the tooth. It's a natural progression for some films and genres to fall out of fashion. With all the new attention being directed toward video games as the next big source of film adaptations, it’ll be interesting to see how the rest of this year plays out for superhero films.
Look, to be quite honest, we're not economists here, nor do we fully understand what the market's ever-fluctuating behavior means for the future of superhero films. We only care if a movie looks good enough to check out for ourselves, and Thunderbolts* looks cool.
Is it going to have the power to change the movie landscape, reinvent the superhero genre, and somehow move the timeline back to where Marvel was an unstoppable machine? Ah, no. It's safe to say that's not going to happen. But it might be good enough to keep Marvel fans excited for The Fantastic Four: First Steps (in theaters July 25) and maybe for Avengers: Doomsday (next summer, May 2026).
It's a low bar, we know. But there might be a silver lining: if Marvel feels less duty-bound to stick to their old MCU formula and becomes more open to shaking things up for future projects, it could lead to renewed enthusiasm. And Thunderbolts* just might be that small step toward something different. For one, it's a story about how a team of anti-heroes and supposed villains came together to save the world when no one else had the power to step up and pick up the mantle left by a now-dissolved Avengers. A group of misfits who no one in their right mind would put in charge of a mission so great, yet are our only hope to protect the universe from a rogue super-being with immense power.
Okay, now that we think of it, Thunderbolts* does sound like the typical MCU formula. But hey, Florence Pugh is here with David Harbour, and they were great together in the Black Widow standalone movie.
Sebastian Stan, fresh from his recent Oscar nomination, is back as Bucky Barnes, leading the fight. While Lewis Pullman, Wyatt Russell, Hannah John-Kamen, and Geraldine Viswanathan have always impressed us whenever they’ve shown up in something. The cast is solid.
And the team working behind the camera is stellar as well with director Jake Schreier (The Beef) calling the shots and screenwriters Joanna Calo (The Bear) and Eric Pearson (Thor: Ragnarok, Black Widow) penning the script. Cinematographer Andrew Droz Palermo (The Green Knight) is handling the lighting and camera skills. There's no doubt the talent is there.
And Marvel has proudly been promoting its ability to attract talented filmmakers with an A24 pedigree. Not too long ago, the studio released a Thunderbolts trailer with an A24 vibe, conceding to the fact that it might have been wise to show off the movie’s filmmaking roster rather than relying solely on traditional superhero promotions.
But with only two weeks left until its release, Marvel has dropped the final trailer for Thunderbolts*, offering a thrilling look at the superhero team no one saw coming. They may be misfits and outcasts, but they’re here to do their best in a time of great uncertainty. They might not be The Avengers, but who’s to say they can’t be the MCU’s best hope for its future? And who’s to say they can’t be the darker version of The Avengers… The Dark Avengers?
Well, fans won’t have to wait much longer to find out when Thunderbolts* hits theaters on May 2nd. Watch the trailer, above.
