When Marvel Studios first announced Thunderbolts* at 2022’s San Diego Comic-Con as part of its ambitious lineup for Phase 5 and 6 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe franchise, the movie didn’t yet have that odd asterisk in the title. It didn’t come with many details, either, apart from a July 26, 2024 release date that shifted along with many other MCU projects in the wake of the 2023 WGA strike.
In the wake of the Thunderbolts* segment of 2024’s San Diego Comic-Con, we don’t know much more! The asterisk is still a mystery: Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige said at a CinemaCon appearance, “we won’t talk more about that until after the movie comes out,” and confirmed it again at Comic-Con.
But as the core cast of Thunderbolts* took the stage, the Hall H audience was treated to a teaser in which all their characters came under fire from a mysterious foe who, according to Florence Pugh’s Yelena Belova, wants them all dead.
Traditionally in Marvel Comics, the Thunderbolts are a team-up of second-string villains or anti-heroes, though their membership and motives vary significantly depending which iteration you’re talking about. The MCU team is built of not-exactly-always-good characters introduced in previous films in the franchise: Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen, of Ant-Man and the Wasp), Red Guardian (David Harbour, Black Widow), the Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan, the Captain America movies), U.S. Agent, aka John Walker (Wyatt Russell, Falcon and the Winter Soldier), and Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko, Black Widow). Pugh’s Yelena, from Black Widow and Hawkeye, leads the team, with slimy mastermind Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Falcon and the Winter Soldier) behind the scenes.
Who might want all those folks dead? What might those folks do to stay alive? And what the heck is that asterisk about after all? We’ll have to wait for the theatrical debut of Thunderbolts* on May 2, 2025, as the final movie in the MCU’s Phase 5.
You can find all Polygon’s coverage of SDCC 2024 news, trailers, and more here.
