If you were counting down the days until Thunderbolts was originally set to arrive in theaters in 2024, you will need to adjust your countdown. With the SAG-AFTRA strike officially ending early this morning, Disney has shuffled around their upcoming movie slate this evening—which means a lot of movies just got delayed to the end of 2024 and beyond. In the case of Thunderbolts, the superhero team-up film is now slated to land in theaters on July 25, 2025.
The film was originally planned to cap off the MCU‘s ambitious Phase 5, but with the victorious wins for WGA and SAG-AFTRA, that line-up has shifted around quite a bit in recent weeks as production has resumed on a number of those titles. While there has been no word yet on where things stand for the MCU‘s Disney+ plans, which Bob Iger recently implied were diluting the MCU brand, we do know for a fact that the currently untitled Deadpool 3 which is heading into production next week, will arrive July 26, 2024, followed by Captain America: Brave New World on February 14, 2025, with Thunderbolts crashing into theaters that summer. Blade, which still seems like a lofty dream in a lot of ways, has also moved its release date to November 7, 2025. Hopefully, in two years they’ll have sorted out the plans for the highly anticipated and allegedly R-rated film.
Thunderbolts is being directed by Jake Schreier, with Black Widow‘s Eric Pearson writing the screenplay. Back in February—long before the strikes—Sebastian Stan claimed that he hadn’t seen the script yet, though a few weeks prior, Julie Louis-Dreyfus called the upcoming film “absolutely wild.” Which is quite ironic, given the fact that Kevin Feige stated that Bucky Barnes will be the one to lead the anti-hero squad.
Who Is Involved in ‘Thunderbolts’?
While plot details are still largely unknown for Thunderbolts, we do know that the film will see Valentina Allegra de Fontaine’s (Louis-Dreyfus) band of misfit superheroes finally come together. This includes Bucky Barnes (Stan), U.S. Agent (Wyatt Russell), Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), Red Guardian (David Harbour), Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko), with newcomers to the franchise—Ayo Edebiri and Steven Yeun though little is known about their roles. Marvel Comic fans know that one of the key players in nearly every run of the Thunderbolts is Baron Zemo, but it’s still uncertain if Daniel Brühl will be reprising his role following his crowd-pleasing appearance in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Perhaps his potential absence will make sense, after all, Schreier recently said that the film won’t be what fans expect.
Now that both strikes have come to an end, there’s bound to be an influx of news about Thunderbolts as production kicks into gear. Stick around for more news while we wait for July 25, 2025 to arrive. In the meantime, check out The Falcon and the Winter Soldier on Disney+.
via Collider