Movie of the Week
Thunderbolts debut as new antihero squad
A new chapter in the Marvel Comics Universe follows a conflicted team navigating loyalty, control, and high-stakes redemption.
Thunderbolts, a new Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) film, follows a team of antiheroes forced into a high-stakes mission that may be their only chance at redemption. The story brings together characters with dark pasts, dangerous abilities, and fragile loyalties – and challenges them to work as one. It is the 36th film in the MCU and the final instalment in Phase Five of the franchise.
The movie released yesterday (1 May 2025) in Ster-Kinekor cinemas, and on 30 April at Nu Metro theatres. It will also be screened in Ster-Kinekor’s Imax theatres in South Africa.
The Thunderbolts team includes a volatile mix of returning characters from across the MCU. Yelena Belova, trained in the Red Room and grappling with loss, takes on a leadership role. She’s joined by Bucky Barnes, the former Winter Soldier trying to redefine his legacy, and Red Guardian, the brash Russian super soldier with a complicated fatherly bond to Yelena.
John Walker, now operating as US Agent, brings raw strength and a fractured sense of duty, while Ghost offers phasing abilities and a calmer command of the instability that once defined her. Taskmaster, capable of mirroring any fighting style, adds calculated precision to the group’s combat edge. New to the MCU is Bob Reynolds, Sentry, a powerful and unpredictable figure with immense strength and a shadowy alter ego.
Together, these characters form a team stitched from conflicting ideologies and emotional baggage. Their dynamic is as much a source of tension as it is strength – a theme the film explores as they’re pushed into a mission that demands unity where trust is scarce. The team is assembled by Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, director of the CIA and new owner of the former Avengers Tower, now called Watchtower.
As the MCU expands, the Thunderbolts plays a key role in exploring what comes after the age of the Avengers. It connects characters and events from Black Widow, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Ant-Man and the Wasp, and Hawkeye, while setting the stage for a darker, more conflicted future in the Marvel universe.
The film is directed by Jake Schreier, and written by Eric Pearson and Joanna Calo. The cast includes Florence Pugh as Yelena Belova, Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes, Wyatt Russell as John Walker/US Agent, and David Harbour as Alexei Shostakov/Red Guardian. Lewis Pullman, new to the MCU, plays Bob Reynolds/Sentry.
Hannah John-Kamen returns as Ava Starr/Ghost, Olga Kurylenko reprises her role as Antonia Dreykov/Taskmaster, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus appears as Valentina Allegra de Fontaine. Supporting roles include Geraldine Viswanathan, Laurence Fishburne and Rachel Weisz.
