Marvel releases trailer for the new movie ‘Thunderbolts’

On Monday, Marvel released the teaser trailer and poster for its upcoming film “Thunderbolts,” the latest addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, or MCU. The movie is set to release in theaters on May 2, 2025.
This teaser trailer was first shown at the D23 convention in August and copies of the trailer were leaked onto different platforms such as YouTube and X.
According to Forbes, “Thunderbolts will function as a sort of variation of DC’s Suicide Squad, minus the bombs in everyone’s heads.”
According to Marvel Cinematic Universe Wiki, “The Thunderbolts are a team of individuals with special characteristics who are recruited by Valentina Allegra de Fontaine to undertake missions for the CIA and the United States government.”
Here is a list of the Thunderbolts members, per Forbes:
Played by Florence Pugh, Yelena was introduced to the MCU in the movie “Black Widow” and also makes an appearance in the series “Hawkeye”.
Yelena is the adopted sister of Natasha Romanoff and was a Red Room operative who worked for General Dreykov as a Black Widow. In “Black Widow,” she joins forces with Romanoff and Red Guardian to take down the Red Room, per Marvel Cinematic Universe Wiki.
Played by David Harbour, Red Guardian, or Alexei Shostakov, was first introduced in “Black Widow.”
According to Marvel, “Alexei is known most famously as Red Room’s answer to Captain America. He’s a Super-Soldier spy who has lived a lifetime of triumph during the Cold War.” Shostakov went undercover as the adoptive father to Belova and Romanoff, later working with them to take down the Red Room.
Played by Sebastian Stan, Bucky Barnes, also known as the Winter Soldier, was first introduced in “Captain America: The First Avenger” and has made appearances in all the Captain America movies, as well as “Avengers: Infinity War” and “Avengers: Endgame.” He was also a main character in the show “The Falcon and The Winter Soldier.”
“Barnes enlists to fight in World War II, but eventually literally falls in battle. Unfortunately, the evil Arnim Zola recovers him and erases his memory, turning him into a highly-trained assassin called the Winter Soldier,” per Marvel.
Bucky is later reformed and fights alongside the Avengers.
Played by Hannah John-Kamen, Ava Starr, also known as Ghost, was introduced to the MCU in “Ant-Man and the Wasp”.
Ava “gained the ability to render herself intangible and generate extreme amounts of power following a quantum accident which killed her parents,” per Marvel Cinematic Universe Wiki.
Her powers were used by S.H.I.E.L.D. at a young age and she acted as a stealth operative for the agency.
Played by Olga Kurylenko, Taskmaster, also known as Antonia Dreykov, was first introduced in “Black Widow”.
According to Marvel Cinematic Universe Wiki, “Antonia had her mind and body controlled by a chip, which imbued her with uncanny photographic reflexes that allow her to mimic the fighting techniques of other individuals, turning her into Taskmaster.”
Played by Wyatt Russell, John Walker, or US Agent, made his first MCU appearance in “The Falcon and The Winter Soldier”
A former Army captain, Walker was chosen to succeed Steve Rogers as Captain America. His journey of being Captain America is shown in “The Falcon and The Winter Soldier,” according to Marvel Cinematic Universe Wiki.
He ends up taking the super soldier serum, and after murdering a foreign national, was stripped of his mantle and discharged with loss of rank.
According to Forbes, the movie centers around this group of bad guy “antiheroes” assembled by Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, played to by Julia Louis-Dreyfus. The group is assembled to take on Sentry, played by Lewis Pullman, who poses a great threat.
A synopsis of the plot has not been released yet.
It is also known that Geraldine Viswanathan will be in the movie playing a mystery role, per Nerdist.
As many of the Thunderbolts characters have already been introduced into the MCU, it is likely that the film will gloss over the details of their back stories. According to Forbes, this is what you should watch before seeing “Thunderbolts”: