When Marvel Studios first announced Thunderbolts* at San Diego Comic-Con 2022 as part of the ambitious schedule for Phase 5 and 6 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe franchise, the film didn’t yet have that strange asterisk in its title. There weren’t many details, either, aside from a July 26, 2024 release date, which, along with many other MCU projects, was pushed back in the wake of the 2023 WGA strike.
In the wake of the Thunderbolts* Segment of San Diego Comic-Con 2024, 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 about it anymore until the movie comes out,” and confirmed this again at Comic-Con.
But when the core cast of Thunderbolts* took the stage, the audience in Hall H was treated to a teaser in which all of her characters came under fire from a mysterious enemy who, according to Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), wants them all dead.
Traditionally, the Thunderbolts in Marvel Comics are a team of second-class villains or antiheroes, although their members and motives vary considerably depending on the iteration. The MCU team consists of not always good characters introduced in previous films in the franchise: Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen, from Ant-Man and the Wasp), Red Guardian (David Harbour, Black widow), the Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan, the Captain America films), US Agent, aka John Walker (Wyatt Russell, Falcon and the Winter Soldier
Who wants all these people to die? What could these people do to stay alive? And what the hell is with that asterisk? We’ll have to wait for the big screen debut of. Thunderbolts* on May 2, 2025 as the last film of Phase 5 of the MCU.
Find all of Polygon’s coverage of SDCC 2024 news, trailers, and more here.
