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With its focus on character dynamics and interpersonal relationships, new Marvel movie Thunderbolts* feels like the MCU's most grounded and self-contained project in a very long time, especially after the multiversal mayhem of 2024's Deadpool and Wolverine. And director Jake Schreier says the film felt like that from the off – in more ways than one.
In an early scene, several of the characters meet for the first time in a bit of a sticky situation: trapped in a vault, with no way out but each other's help. "When [screenwriter] Eric Pearson came up with it with Brian Chapek, I think one of the original versions was kind of like a Die Hard thing," Schreier tells GamesRadar+. "Or it was all going to take place in this vault, and getting out of it, which would have been a very cool thing. So I think in the DNA of the film, it was always a little bit more contained."
As has become par for the course with Marvel movies, the film underwent several rounds of rewrites between Schreier's hiring in 2022 and its impending release. When we ask which one was the most significant for Schreier, the filmmaker can think of two in particular.
The movie revolves around the titular group of familiar faces (namely Florence Pugh's Yelena Belova, Sebastian Stan's Bucky Barnes, Wyatt Russell's John Walker, David Harbour's Red Guardian, Hannah John-Kamen's Ghost, and Olga Kurylenko's Taskmaster), but there's a new character in the mix, too: Bob, played by Lewis Pullman. His character is key to the group's formation and their bonding as a team, but he didn't always play such an integral role in the film.
"When I first came in, working with Eric, [it was] finding that idea of having Bob on the team with [the Thunderbolts]. In the draft before that, they were on parallel tracks, but it felt like they've really got to get to know him if we're going to make this ending work," the director explains.
"Later, when [Netflix's Beef creator] Lee Sung Jin came in, that's when it really became about a young woman going through a really dark phase," Schreier continues, referring to Yelena's arc in the movie. "A lot more of the smaller scenes and internal character scenes that express that, and a lot of those kind of metaphysical ideas [came into play], and that's where it started to feel like, okay, this is really becoming something different.
"When Joanna [Calo, The Bear co-showrunner] came in and worked on it, and did such a beautiful job, I think a lot of those team dynamics and the way that they play off of each other in the vault, she brought such a great perspective to that."
Thunderbolts* hits UK cinemas on May 1 and US theaters on May 2. In the meantime, check out our guide to all the other upcoming superhero movies on the way from Marvel and DC in 2025 and beyond.
