David Harbour reveals which ‘Thunderbolts’ teammate is his favorite

Despite the casting mayhem surrounding one Hannah John-Kamen, Thunderbolts remains one of the most anticipated projects in the Marvel Cinematic Universe‘s entire Multiverse Saga, if for no other reason than it looks set to flip the script of what we usually expect from the MCU, when a squad of antiheroes doling out the will of the devilish Valentina Allegra de Fontaine is one way to get the attention of those suffering from Marvel fatigue.

Comprising the eponymous team of the black ops answer to the Avengers is the Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan), Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko), U.S. Agent (Wyatt Russell), and Red Guardian (David Harbour), with the aforementioned John-Kamen’s Ghost having previously been announced as part of the lineup, but appears to be absent from the official cast list as of late.

Ghost or no Ghost, fans will no doubt be preparing for Harbour’s Red Guardian to steal the show, as he did alongside Pugh’s Yelena in 2021’s Black Widow, in no small part due to his humorous, bumbling demeanor.

While Red Guardian will surely be closest with daughter Yelena in the film, she’s not the fan favorite of the actor behind Russia’s Captain America equivalent. In an interview with The Playlist, Harbour named Russell’s John Walker as the teammate he’s most fascinated by, noting the actor’s wildly evocative performance in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, as well as daydreaming about the character’s dynamic with Red Guardian as a “darker” Captain America.

“In terms of the new guys, I will say that I really love what Wyatt Russell did. And I think, just the fact of a real dark Captain America, like, what that means in terms of his relationship with Red Guardian and what that spark will be like. You know, Red Guardian is just a foil to Captain America. He’s obsessed with Captain America. And this guy, although Mackie is the real Captain America, Wyatt is a version of that patriotic thing that’s darker. And so, I think, as Red Guardian, I’m very interested to see where that leads.”

Here’s hoping audiences have trouble (the good kind) picking a favorite member of the Thunderbolts come 2024. After Marvel’s wet fart of a Phase Five opener in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Thunderbolts and the rest of the Multiverse Saga slate will have their work cut out for them.

Thunderbolts will release to theaters on July 26, 2024.