Julia Louis-Dreyfus ‘really wants to fight’ in Marvel’s Thunderbolts

Julia Louis-Dreyfus in Black Widow
(Image credit: Marvel/Disney Plus)

Julia Louis-Dreyfus is ready to kick ass and take names in Marvel's upcoming Thunderbolts movie.

"I actually pitched it," Louis-Dreyfus told Variety. "I told them I really, really want to fight. We’ll see if that happens. I haven’t seen the script yet. Ugh. I’d better get in shape."

We saw Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Louis-Dreyfus) recruit the disgraced John Walker (Wyatt Russell) for an unknown project at the end of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, before doing the same with Yelena (Florence Pugh) in the post-credits scene after Black Widow. The project was, in fact, the Thunderbolts.

"There’s so much secrecy around it," Louis-Dreyfus continued."When I first started shooting [Black Widow] I had to go set wearing a black cloak with a hood and keep my head down so nobody could see it was me walking onto the soundstage."

David Harbour and Olga Kurylenko will reprise their Black Widow roles as Alexei Shostakov, AKA Red Guardian, and Antonia Dreykov, AKA Taskmaster, respectively. Sebastian Stan will return as Bucky Barnes, AKA the Winter Soldier, and Hannah John-Kamen will be back in her Ant-Man and the Wasp role as Ava Starr, AKA Ghost.

Added Louis-Dreyfus: "In the original comic she has sort of a white streak in her hair, but I thought purple would make it a little more of this world today. And I didn’t want her to look too much like Cruella, or anything like that."

Thunderbolts is set to premiere July 26, 2024, as part of Marvel Phase 5. For more, check out our list of all the new superhero movies flying your way in 2023 and beyond.

Lauren Milici
Senior Writer, Tv & Film

Lauren Milici is a Senior Entertainment Writer for GamesRadar+ currently based in the Midwest. She previously reported on breaking news for The Independent's Indy100 and created TV and film listicles for Ranker. Her work has been published in Fandom, Nerdist, Paste Magazine, Vulture, PopSugar, Fangoria, and more.