Thunderbolts director reveals he "really wanted" Man-Thing on the team, but another Marvel project got there first: "It all worked out for the best"

Thunderbolts* may include a motley crew of MCU misfits but, as director Jake Schreier reveals, there was still one that got away.

"I think there was a point during pitching when I really wanted Man-Thing to be on the team," laughs Schreier during an interview in the new issue of SFX magazine, which features The Walking Dead: Dead City season 2 on the cover and hits newsstands on Wednesday, April 23.

Marvel-heads may be keenly aware, though, that the swamp monster actually made his bow at Marvel Studios during the one-shot special Werewolf by Night in 2022.

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Even Schreier admits, however, that "it all worked out for the best."

For the director, who was best known pre-Thunderbolts for helming Paper Towns, the construction of the team in the Marvel movie was less straightforward than merely bringing in characters for an easy redemptive arc.

"It was about looking through the MCU and not just finding bad guys who could be good but characters that exist more on that morally grey plane or who were potentially destined for something else but then something went awry," Schreier explains. "Or maybe they're just misunderstood, someone like John Walker, where he was literally Captain America."

Schreier adds of the goal of the Thunderbolts team (which includes Florence Pugh's Yelena, Sebastian Stan's Bucky Barnes, and David Harbour's Red Guardian), "Maybe there is something that is worth caring about. I think all of them have kind of lost touch with that idea. At first through sheer necessity, because of the situation that they're thrown into together, but then later more out of inspiration, as a group could they become something bigger than each of themselves could be on their own?"

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Thunderbolts releases in cinemas on May 2. Read more in the latest issue of SFX magazine, which will be available from Wednesday, April 23. Check out The Walking Dead: Dead City season 2 cover you need to be looking out for on newsstands below...