The Screen Scribe

I’ve got to be honest; I truly did not expect much from this project when it was initially announced given how scattershot Marvel properties had become in terms of quality. I love the property itself, it’s a fantastic, fun comic book team to read. Then the first teaser dropped back during the summer I think it was? Maybe? Anyway, it was…good. Not excellent, not a “damn can’t wait for this”, but good, solid. Promising. Enough to intrigue me.

Over the past weekend at the Brazil D23 Special Event, a new trailer dropped with an extended opening sequence. And bloody hell, this is what I was hoping for. I was laughing, giggling, and clapping to this trailer. All I could think was YES. MARVEL IS BACK BABY. Heavily featuring Bucky aka the Winter Soldier, Yelena Romanov aka the new Black Widow, and Alexei Shostakov aka the Red Guardian. These three absolutely bounce off each other and they are characters I am thoroughly invested in following their previous outings.

And then there’s…Bob. If you know who Bob is, then you know this is going to get interesting.

I was getting Guardians of the Galaxy vibes during this trailer. A group of misfits brought together, that don’t particularly like each other, trust each other and probably want to kill one another, but have to achieve a common goal. David Harbour absolutely rocks the Red Guardian again, while Florence Pugh is sublime as always. Sebastian Stan straps on the Winter Soldier bionic arm again with ease, no longer a side character and, seemingly, embracing the Winter Soldier persona, hopefully trying to redeem the title. The team dynamics promise plenty of laughs based on those seen in the trailer, which are some of the funniest I’ve seen from Marvel in a while (Deadpool and Wolverine notwithstanding).

I can honestly say that out of the three Marvel trailers we got this weekend, this was the best. I am super excited to see the Thunderbolts. This trailer surprised the hell out of me, with outstanding humour, spectacular, grounded action and a delightfully dysfunctional team that promises to be an absolute blast.

5 / 5 * asterisks * from the Screen Scribe.

The Thunderbolts* is in theatres May 2025.

Check out the trailer on Youtube.