‘I can’t play favorites at this point’: ‘Thunderbolts’ director refuses to commit to naming their preferred antihero

Thunderbolts should be a wild ride, and is essentially the MCU’s take on the Suicide Squad. The movie will see several morally ambiguous characters team up, with the gang comprised of Bucky Barnes, Ghost, U.S. Agent, Yelena Belova, Red Guardian and Taskmaster, all under the guidance of Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ Valentina Allegra de Fontaine and with Harrison Ford’s President Thaddeus Ross overseeing everything.

Filming was supposed to be taking place in Utah right now, though the ongoing Hollywood strikes have slammed the brakes on, and the movie has slipped to December 2024. But if director Jake Schreier is feeling the pressure he isn’t showing it. Speaking to ScreenRant, he was quizzed as to whether he had a favorite member of the team:

“I’m gonna plead the fifth on that. I gotta go make this movie. I can’t play favorites at this point. I think, look, obviously one of the first things that struck me about it was just what an incredible cast had been assembled. And I mean, who wouldn’t want to work with that cast in any form? So I think I’m just really excited about each of them. Getting to show that work connected to these characters and really bring that kind of deeper understanding of who these characters are.”

He also said to expect the unexpected and that this will be distinct from other MCU projects:

“Something that was exciting about Thunderbolts is [that] it’s not a sequel. It’s a new story, and it’s a set of characters that maybe we’ve met a little bit in the MCU before, but this is a very new take on who they are and what brings them together. Probably not what people are expecting from it, but I guess I can’t really say more than that.”

Schreier sounds upbeat, but having a movie like Thunderbolts on hiatus must be stressful. Scheduling a shoot with a large cast of stars must be a nightmare, although at least every other Hollywood production is in the same boat.

If Thunderbolts is going to hit its new December 2024 release date, it needs to go before the cameras by the end of 2023 at the latest to allow time for post-production and VFX work. It’s very possible these strikes could stretch on into 2024, at which point we’re going to be looking at substantial delays for every major production.

If that happens, maybe the studio heads will finally come to the table with to negotiate in good faith. But, at this point, we’re not holding our breath.

Thunderbolts is set to release on December 20, 2024.