Marvel’s Thunderbolts movie cast versus the comics, explained

A superhero universe must have a motley crew of supervillains that pretend they’re doing good work because somebody is paying them. Marvel Cinematic Universe now has sufficient supervillains for its own. ThunderboltsIn theaters July 2024.

The big Marvel news out of Disney’s 2022 D23 Expo was reveal of just which bad guys would make up the Thunderbolts movie lineup. So let’s dig into who the Thunderbolts are, and what fans can expect from Marvel’s take on a Suicide Squad.

What are the Thunderbolts of Marvel Comics?

Image by Matthew Rosenberg and Juan Ferreyra/Marvel Comics

There have been many, many different incarnations of the Thunderbolts in Marvel Comics canon — but the team started as a bait and switch. These characters were designed by Kurt Busiek (writer) and Mark Bagley (artist). The Incredible Hulk in 1997 (a whole decade after the modern incarnation of the Suicide Squad, so don’t get it twisted), as a new superhero team attempting to fill the hole left by the Avengers’ absence.

What happened to the Avengers? Well, an evil psychic being born from Professor X’s suppressed thoughts of — you know what? Don’t worry about it.

It turned out that the Thunderbolts actually were the Masters of Evil disguised, trying to pretend they are superheroes to gain power and fame, while being led by a hidden Nazi leader, Baron Helmut Zemo. Eventually the “heroes” of the group kicked Zemo out of it and tried going straight for a while before their story petered out — but the idea of a superhero team made of supervillains is just too good a toy to leave in the proverbial toybox.

Sometimes, the Thunderbolts are working to redeem themselves, and sometimes they’re just working for corrupt government leaders. Some members have even been heroes — usually the ones with bad guy pasts — like Hawkeye, Black Widow, Elektra, and Ant-Man. There’s no traditional Thunderbolts lineup, and no tradition of characters dying more frequently than other series’, as with the Suicide Squad. Numerous Marvel characters, from Zaran to Abomination, have served a time on the Thunderbolts.

Which Thunderbolts are in the MCU and who do they belong to?

Marvel Studios announced the entire character roster at its panel in D23 2022. Team members include Yelena Belava, Yelena Bellova, Red Guardian, Ghost and the Winter Soldier. They will also be led by Valentina Fontaine (an unscrupulous and mysterious woman).

Ghost

Image: Marvel Studios

Ghost, aka Ava Star, featured as the villain in 2018’s Ant-Man & the Wasp. Hannah John-Kamen played a woman who was accidentally given the power to phase through solid matter in a childhood science accident, she worked as a covert SHIELD operative in hopes of getting help finding a cure to her body’s slow dematerialization. When she discovered Hydra’s infiltration of SHIELD, she defected and turned to crime in desperation, finding her goals at cross-purposes with Scott Lang’s. At the end, her condition was stabilized and she was still alive.

Red Guardian

Image: Marvel Studios

David Harbour plays Alexei Shostakov. Black Widow, is one of Russia’s attempts to recreate the US super soldier treatment that created Captain America. Natasha Romanoff, Yelena Belova and him are somewhat disappointed in their father figures. This is the end of Black Widow, he was on the run from authorities alongside the rest of Russia’s Red Room Black Widows, who had been freed from mind control.

Taskmaster

Image: Marvel Studios

Taskmaster, an emercenary, can remember and duplicate the physical abilities of any person he sees. This trick is what he uses often to fight the Avengers with their fighting styles. Taskmaster in the MCU is all of that. However, he’s also a brainwashed, little girl who was raised with the goal to become an unstoppable assassin by a computer chip implanted into her brain. This character was introduced in Black Widow, at the end of the movie, Antonia Dreykov’s brainwashing had been broken and she escaped along with Red Guardian and the other Black Widows.

Yelena Belova

Photo: Marvel Studios

Yelena is a Black Widow and Red Guardian, just as I mentioned. A younger recruit to Russia’s Black Widow program, she defected and escaped mind control in Black WidowThe man she believed had murdered her sister was then found. Hawkeye. The series ended with her discovering the truth — that Clint Barton was innocent — and fading back into the shadows after having a lot of very flirty conversations with Kate Bishop.

The Winter Soldier

Photo: Disney Plus

The most venerable Marvel Cinematic Universe of the bunch is Sebastian Stan’s Bucky Barnes aka the Winter Soldier. This film debuted in The Winter Soldier, Captain AmericaBucky was also featured in seven MCU movies. The Falcon and Winter Soldier Disney Plus series.

At the time we saw him, he still felt pretty mad at Steve Rogers being gone, but had met Sam Wilson and was now able to forgive himself for many of his murders while brainwashed. And he still was mad at the next person.

US Agent

Image: Disney Plus

John Walker, the US Government’s choice to succeed Steve Rogers in Captain America was made until Walker bludgeoned one man with his shield. So he made his own, new shield, and set out to kill the guys’ allies, until the last minute he decided to save some hostages instead. He was recruited by Valentina Fontaine to be a secret troop of superpowered individuals at the conclusion of the episode.

How will Thunderbolts be different?

The Avengers are not represented in the MCU at the moment. Thunderbolts’ telling position as the final film in Marvel’s Phase 5, it seems likely that the team’s original incarnation — in which they posed as superheroes worthy of filling the Avengers’ shoes — will frame the film. Valentina De Fontaine is already known to be in frequent contact with US Agent Yelena Bellova (in The Falcon and Winter SoldierAnd Black Widow), and it seems likely she’ll be spearheading whatever the Thunderbolts’ initiatives are.

More information on Thunderbolts, we’ll just have to wait until we’re closer to July 26, 2024 — because that’s when it hits theaters.