Thunderbolts*

Marvel Studios’ highly anticipated movie Thunderbolts* came out fairly recently on May 2nd, 2025. Being a huge fan of the franchise, I went to see it as soon as possible. The film follows a group of antiheroes who have all done many wrongs in their lives. The members are: Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), Ava Starr (Hannah John-Kamen), John Walker (Wyatt Russell), and Alexi Shostakov (David Harbour). They are all led by Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh) the main protagonist of the movie. The way they all meet is actually a ploy that Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) essentially sent them all to assassinate each other to get rid of evidence that would criminalize her. Caught in the crossfire is Bob (Lewis Pullman), who was thought to be dead after being experimented on but was alive to Valentina’s surprise since she had a plan to create a new age of heroes.

This group is forced to work together to essentially escape the vault that Valentina had trapped them in. It’s more about self-preservation than caring about the others to begin with. In the beginning, Yelena butts heads with John because he obviously wants to take charge of the situation, being that he was the official Captain America until Sam Wilson took up the mantle after Walker did a terrible job, as seen in The Falcon and The Winter Soldier (2021). Ava, also known as Ghost from Ant-Man and The Wasp (2018), backs up Yelena and ultimately she becomes the unofficial leader of this group.

Throughout the movie, we are shown nearly every character’s traumas or situations that they regret doing immensely, and it is obvious that these people do not fit the stereotypical ‘hero’ mold. There is a direct conflict within the group and they are ultimately driven to work together because of circumstance, but through that they all develop a sort of found family dynamic. This was really endearing to watch as a viewer and very reminiscent of old Marvel movies.

Without spoiling too much, this film touches on themes of mental health; which is something that Marvel has been starting to expand on with other projects such as, Captain America: Brave New World (2025) and Agatha All Along (2024). I appreciated the character development and exploration within this group of past villains turned antiheroes. While fighting sequences and explosions are still present within this movie, it’s not as much as with the other movies in the franchise. There are more moments of characters having banter or conversations with each other, which is something that drives the plot and each character’s arc forward. This film is really the turning point for the Marvel franchise now that the Infinity Saga has ended. Along with that, so many of the original avengers are no longer present in the franchise. Although, Robert Downey Jr. is confirmed to be returning in Avengers: Doomsday as Dr. Doom, which I am very interested to see how that will line up with the current MCU plot line.

Lining up this new team of heroes with antiheroes, and seeing how they work together as a team was such a joy to watch. In my opinion, this film is very stand alone. I'd say it’s important to have watched some projects to understand how all these characters got to where they are, but the film does a fairly decent job at recapping who each character is and why they are not exactly qualified to be heroes. When I say that this film touches on mental health, I’d wager to say that it encapsulates what trauma is and how many people deal with it. Using the main villain as a sort of metaphor for depression, and how a person can get so caught up in constantly beating themselves up, it touches on the idea that eventually they become a shell of who they used to be. That’s shown in how Yelena views herself in the beginning of the film and where she ends up towards the end.

Overall, I’d say Thunderbolts* is one of the best marvel movies to come out, character development wise, this year. It’s for the true Marvel fans who care deeply about these characters and where the story will take them. The amount of chemistry that I felt through the screen from this cast was undeniable and I could tell they had a lot of fun working on this movie together. This movie really brought a sense of familiarity from the original Avengers movies, and there were many parallels that I could draw from other Marvel movies as they were happening in front of me. Needless to say that I could go on forever, and sing praises about this film, but I will let the movie speak for itself. If you had any plans of seeing this movie, even if you are not familiar with the Marvel movies, I’d highly recommend you go see it!