The Marvel Cinematic Universe is in desperate need of a win following the disappointing performances of several Phase 4 and 5 installments. In the pipeline is one of the franchise’s most enigmatic projects to date, Jake Schreier’s Thunderbolts, featuring all of our favorite anti-heroes. No one really knows what to expect from the upcoming film, but the director promises a “very new take” on and a “deeper understanding” of the familiar characters and what brings them together.
Speaking to ScreenRant, Schreier lifted the lid ever so slightly on the star-studded Marvel project, teasing “something different” that is “probably not what people are expecting.” The Paper Towns director spoke about the excitement of working with such a renowned group of actors, including names like Harrison Ford, Florence Pugh, Sebastian Stan, David Harbour and his Beef teammate Steven Yeun.
“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.”
Besides getting to direct Yeun, Schreier also got to team up with Beef scribe Lee Sung Jin for the project. The prospect of bringing a winning team back together was as enticing as anything, which will hopefully be reflected in the final product. “I’d want to work with them over and over again for my career. When you find something like that, you just want to keep doing it,” the director offered.
In the comics, the Thunderbolts are made up of supervillains who try to replace the Avengers by disguising themselves as heroes. Of course, eventually, they really are reformed. It’s impossible to not immediately trace the parallels with other comic book stories, particularly DC’s The Suicide Squad, but with James Gunn out of the picture at Marvel Studios, it’s up to Schreier and Lee to actually keep their promises and deliver something we have not seen before.