Did you catch the asterisk in the title? Like a throwing star, hurled at our comic book movie-loving heads, that asterisk comes with a twist. But we’ll get to that. Thunderbolts* comes with an arsenal full of surprises—some I can tell you, some I can’t.
What you probably didn’t see coming is this latest MCU adventure is essentially a corporate retreat for reformed anti-villains. And when counting the involvement of Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), we could call it Marvel’s Suicide Squad. A prefabricated band of people who’ve done very bad things are brought together to inadvertently (or advertently) do good but end up working out their issues. Here’s another surprise, this newest take on the concept pushes a heavier weight of redemption and self-reflection than the previous attempts we’ve seen in other Marvel outings like WandaVision or Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. (I still love WandaVision bunches, though.)
In Marvel Studios‘ latest strategic move, Thunderbolts* assembles a team of complicated individuals who’ve historically operated in the MCU’s moral midlands. Set after the events of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Black Widow, and Ant-Man and the Wasp, the movie follows Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Louis-Dreyfus) as she manipulates a group of disillusioned antagonists into what appears to be a suicide mission. The not-a-team includes Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), still processing her sister’s sacrifice, the Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan) carrying the weight of his past sins, Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen) suffering from a life of isolation and being left unseen, U.S. Agent John Walker (Wyatt Russell) trying to redeem his tarnished legacy, Red Guardian (David Harbour) seeking purpose in a world that’s moved on without him, and the mysterious Bob Reynolds/Sentry (Lewis Pullman) whose missing memories might hold dangerous secrets.
What starts as a forced collaboration orchestrated by Valentina transforms into something more complex when these damaged individuals find themselves caught in an elaborate death trap that forces them to confront not just external threats, but their own troubled histories. And by the end, Thunderbolts* becomes the culminating chapter of Marvel’s Phase 5, promising to redefine what it means to be a hero, an anti-hero, a villain, an anti-villain, or someone who really, really doesn’t want to get involved in the MCU’s evolving landscape.
Another surprise? Thunderbolts* is a meditation on loneliness—a specific kind of isolation that comes from being the villain and then becoming the anti-villain of your own story. These aren’t your typical MCU leads—they’re morally gray and perhaps merely misguided players in the game of heroics—even while their methods cross ethical lines. Hold on. Wait. When you think about it that way, the Thunderbolts aren’t that different from Tony Stark or Stephen Strange or Original Recipe Black Widow. Pugh’s Yelena carries this theme as our central character, her performance allows us to feel the hollow ache of loss and the need to evolve into a better version of yourself. She inherited the Black Widow mantle from her sister but she hasn’t found the purpose that inspired Natasha (Scarlett Johansson) to become a hero. That disconnect and yearning resonates throughout the movie.
The emotional heavy lifting doesn’t stop there. We’ve got the Winter Soldier, still wrestling with his ledger of forced sins, Ava Starr/Ghost who feels like she has nothing to hold onto, and John Walker, the Dollar Store Captain America whose shield-staining choices have left him shaken and disconnected from the principles he used to think he was fighting for. Then there’s Bob, a man who can’t remember who he is but suspects he might not want to—a metaphor for pushing your past so far down that it forcibly resurfaces.
What sets Thunderbolts* apart from Marvel’s previous attempts at villain rehabilitation is its commitment to the bit. The redemption arcs here aren’t neatly wrapped packages delivered with a side of quips. Instead, they’re messy, complicated, and refreshingly “grown” in their execution. The humor, particularly from Harbour’s Red Guardian, serves as a pressure release valve rather than emotional deflection. He’s a Dad but he’s also a man who misses what he might’ve become if he’d been allowed to be America’s Immigrant Dad the way Cap was America’s Ass—um, I mean excellence. America’s excellence.
This movie starts like you’d expect, with big action and laughs. But then the Thunderbolts* cleverly mimics a corporate team-building exercise, complete with forced cooperation and trust falls (long, long, and deadly falls). Unlike your office retreat, the stakes here are life and death, and the trust-building exercises come with body counts. It’s in these moments that Thunderbolts* hits its rhythm, balancing character development with action sequences that serve the narrative beyond the spectacle that has made recent MCU movies less than satisfying.
Considering the complexity of weaving together this many damaged psyches, you have to applaud it. Director Jake Schreier, along with writers Eric Pearson and Joanna Calo, has managed to choreograph a band of broken people stumbling into the first steps of healing through connection, all while Valentina and her fabulous assistant, Mel (Geraldine Viswanathan) play puppet master with guillotine strings.
However—and this is where that asterisk comes in—Marvel can’t resist trolling us by playing with our expectations. There’s a twist that feels very Kevin Feige, some smoke and mirrors that might leave some viewers feeling played while others will cheer. But unlike some of Marvel’s previous bait-and-switches (looking at you, Ralph Bohner and RDJ Doctor Doom), this one feels earned within the context of these characters’ journeys. I’m still mad, though (but we can talk about that later).
What we’re left with is a surprisingly thoughtful exploration of what it means to be an anti-villain in the MCU. These Thunderbolts want and need to change their job descriptions. They have “shame” and that’s a good thing. For a movie about people who’ve made terrible choices, Thunderbolts* makes mostly good ones. I didn’t throw my popcorn like confetti in celebration, but I nodded in appreciation of its ambition and execution.
This is a support group for reformed anti-villains with the laughs, the action, and the feelings in the right places. In a cinematic universe that sometimes struggles with the weight of its mythology (as we’ve seen in Captain America: Brave New World, The Multiverse of Madness, and The Eternals), Thunderbolts finds strength in its willingness to sit with its characters’ damage rather than trying to fix it with a montage and a one-liner.
Just keep your eye on that asterisk, it’s going to hit you in the head.*
Thunderbolts* releases in theaters May 2, 2025
—xxoo—
Related: Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022), Captain America: Brave New World (2025), WandaVision (2021), The Eternals (2021), Black Widow (2021), Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018)
Keywords: Marvel Thunderbolts* review, MCU anti-villains, Valentina de Fontaine, Florence Pugh Yelena Belova, Black Widow, Sebastian Stan, Winter Soldier, Wyatt Russell, US Agent, David Harbour Red Guardian, Ava Starr, Hannah John-Kamen, Ghost, Marvel Phase 5