Kevin Feige Confirms What We Suspected All Along About The New Superhero Team In The MCU
If D23 proved anything, it's that it's a great time to be a comic book fan. The Marvel Cinematic Universe is only getting bigger with each passing month thanks to the numerous shows on Disney+, and there are some huge movies on the way. When Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige took to San Diego Comic-Con 2022, he revealed that the current era of the MCU is titled "The Multiverse Saga" and that it's all building up to two massive movies in 2025: "Avengers: The Kang Dynasty," and "Avengers: Secret Wars."
But there's a long way to go until that point, and plenty of stories are heading to the screen in the meantime — like "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever" and "Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania." Many fans were also hoping to get new information about the "Fantastic Four" movie that's in development; the only thing Feige confirmed is that "WandaVision" director Matt Shakman is in the director's chair for Marvel's first family.
Speaking of superhero teams, Marvel's head honcho also revealed the lineup for the "Thunderbolts" movie, which features Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), Red Guardian (David Harbour), Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), U.S. Agent (Wyatt Russell), Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko), and Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus). But Feige then confirmed what we all suspected about the unlikely set of heroes.
The Thunderbolts are the Avengers' replacements
It's hard to believe that Earth's mightiest heroes would disassemble, but after four films, three major villains, and countless heroes that have joined their ranks, the Avengers are no more. It seems like everyone has gone their separate ways after the end of "Avengers: Endgame," which leaves a vacuum for a new set of heroes to take their place, the Thunderbolts. Kevin Feige was talking about "Captain America: New World Order" when he made the surprising revelation.
He explained, "You know, one thing in the 'Captain America' film is that there currently is a world without the Avengers. Sam Wilson finds himself as Cap at a time where there's not an organization of Avengers." The producer went on to say, "But just because there's not an organization of the Avengers doesn't mean there's not a group of superheroes in the MCU. Not a group, perhaps, as The Avengers, but there's a group, and they're called the Thunderbolts" (via The Direct).
Marvel has been setting the stage for the "Thunderbolts" movie for quite some time thanks to "Ant-Man and The Wasp," "Black Widow," and "The Falcon and The Winter Soldier," and it looks like they're finally ready to take to the stage. In the comics, the Thunderbolts arrived as the Avengers' replacements when the team was believed to be dead following the "Onslaught" event (via Marvel Database). However, they were actually Baron Zemo's Masters of Evil, masquerading as heroes.
Obviously, the MCU Thunderbolts team is playing fast-and-loose with that setup because their ranks are filled by morally ambiguous soldiers and spies rather than straight-up megalomaniacs. But it'll be interesting to see how Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) deals with the Thunderbolts as the Avengers' replacements in the "Captain America" sequel.