Marvel Reveals ‘Thunderbolts’ Lineup at D23

Marvel officially announced it was making a Thunderbolts movie back at San Diego Comic-Con. But the Thunderbolts team has been around for decades, and in that time they’ve had a whole bunch of different incarnations and lineups. Some versions are made up entirely of super-villains in disguise. Others have featured heroes like Hawkeye or Luke Cage leading groups of reformed villains. Sometimes the Thunderbolts are vigilantes, and other times they work for the government. Marvel Studios could have gone a lot of different ways with the concept.

At D23 they revealed a bit more about their plan — including the lineup of the team. The MCU’s Thunderbolts will be Valentina (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), Red Guardian (David Harbour), Black Widow (Florence Pugh), Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan), U.S. Agent (Wyatt Russell), and Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko).

Here was the concept art of the group they showed off:

It‘s an interesting mix of characters, some of whom have been in Thunderbolts comics, others of which have been teased for the team through their various appearances in the Marvel Cinematic Universe to date. And plenty of the characters have history together; Black Widow and Red Guardian are (sort of) father and daughter, while Taskmaster was one of their enemies in the Black Widow movie, which should be… interesting.

The most surprising name who’s not featured in the lineup is Zemo, played by Daniel Bruhl, who previously appeared in Captain America: Civil War and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. In Marvel Comics, Zemo was the first person to assemble a team of Thunderbolts, and he’s been either affiliated with or opposed the team many times through the years. Given how he was portrayed in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, he seemed like a lock for this movie, but unless they’re saving him involvement as a surprise in a future announcement, he’s not a member of the MCU T-Bolts.

Thunderbolts is scheduled to premiere exclusively in theaters on July 26, 2024.