The 36th movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thunderbolts* are a dysfunctional team each with their own unique abilities and dark pasts to face. Most of the cast are familiar faces that we’ve seen in other Marvel movies and shows. We’re sure you’ve got lots of questions – not least of which is why is there an asterix in the title? – but we’re not here to spoil anything. Instead, consider this a cheat sheet for all of the members of the Thunderbolts*, as we catch you up on who they are & where we first met them.
Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh)
First appearance: Black Widow
Yelena Belova first appeared in the MCU in 2021’s Black Widow, where she was introduced as Natasha Romanoff’s sister, both of whom were trained as deadly assassins. Rumours suggest she will lead the motley crew of Thunderbolts* in this movie and that her skills will receive a significant skill upgrade to match her comic book counterpart.
We haven’t seen much of her on screen in recent years aside from popping up to cause trouble in the ‘Hawkeye’ series, after Valentina (more on her later) lied about the circumstances surrounding her sister’s death.
Alexei Shostakov aka Red Guardian (David Harbour).
First appearance: Black Widow
The adoptive father of the Black Widow sisters, Natasha Romanov & Yelena Belova, he is a super soldier & the Soviet Union equivalent to Captain America. We know of his pre-existing man-crush on The Winter Soldier, who he sees as the ultimate Russian hero, so we’re very excited to see how he interacts with his idol in Thunderbolts*.
Bucky Barnes aka The Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan)
First appearance: Captain America: The First Avenger
Poor Bucky has really had a tough time of it over the course of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. He first appeared in 2011 in the first Captain America movie, but fell to his “death” mid-battle, before being resurrected as a mindless killing machine by Hydra. Since then, he’s been a villain (Captain America: The Winter Soldier), an on-the-run anti-hero (Civil War), a hero (Avengers: Endgame), and most recently, in ‘Captain America: Brave New World’, he’s become a politician.
John Walker aka U.S. Agent (Wyatt Russell)
First appearance: The Falcon & the Winter Soldier
Walker is a decorated soldier who became the new Captain America after Steve Rogers’ retirement in ‘Avengers: Endgame’. However, his actions became increasingly violent, lead him to step down and adopt the less catchy title of U.S. Agent instead. In the aftermath of ‘The Falcon and the Winter Soldier’, he is looking for some new meaning in his life.
Enter the Thunderbolts*…
Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko)
First appearance: Black Widow
Not to be confused with the Channel 4 show of the same name. Taskmaster was freed from the mind control of the Red Room leader by Black Widow. She has “photographic reflexes”, which allows her to immediately copy and imitate the fighting style of any opponent she comes into contact with.
Ava Starr aka Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen)
First appearance: Ant-Man & the Wasp
Ava Starr (aka Ghost) is a former enemy of Hank Pim, it was one of his experiments that gave her the power of molecular instability, (i.e., the ability to phase through objects), but it also resulted in the death of her parents. Since then, Ghost has taken more control of her abilities, although we haven’t actually seen her since she was snapped away when Thanos snapped his fingers during the Blip.
Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus)
First appearance: The Falcon and the Winter Soldier
A character with one of the longest names in the MCU. La Contessa Valentina Allegra de la Fontaine is the MCU’s equal but opposite to Nick Fury. Happy to get stuff done in the shadows and by any means necessary, she is the one responsible for putting this particular group of antiheroes together to join the Thunderbolts*. If you recognise her fancy crib, that is because it used to be the Avengers Tower, before real estate queen Valentina snapped it up and renamed it ” Watchtower.”
Bob aka Sentry (Lewis Pullman)
First appearance: Thunderbolts*
Whoever Bob is, he is the mission that Valentina has sent the Thunderbolts*. We’re not yet sure if they have been sent to kill him or save him, but what we do know is that Bob is suffering from amnesia, and is also known as Sentry, who has some devastatingly powerful super abilities. For any more information than that, we’ll have to wait to watch the movie to find out!
Article by Rory Cashin
THUNDERBOLTS is at Irish cinemas from May 1st