First Look: Marvel's ‘Thunderbolts'

Directed by Jake Schreier, who helmed Netflix’s “Beef,” here comes Marvel’s “Thunderbolts.” We have our first look image above.

This is a story led by a batch of anti-heroes and villains, backed by the U.S. government, assembled to execute dangerous missions. The film stars Sebastian Stan, Hannah John-Kamen, Wyatt Russell, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Florence Pugh, David Harbour, Olga Kurylenko, and Harrison Ford.

The cast didn’t initially look like that. Back in January, Ayo Edebiri (“The Bear”) announced her exit from the project. Her reason for dropping out was a “scheduling conflict.” Edebiri’s exit came just a few weeks after Steven Yeung (“Beef,” “Minari”) dropped out of the Marvel-produced “Thunderbolts”. What was Yeun’s excuse for dropping out? You guessed it, ‘twas a “scheduling conflict.”

Around 10 years ago, James Gunn was originally supposed to direct “Thunderbolts” before he exited Marvel to head the DCU. Schreier has been attached to the project since 2022.

Eric Pearson wrote the original draft of the script. In early 2023, Lee Sung Jin came in for rewrites. Earlier this year, Joanna Calo came in for more rewrites. It ends up being that Pearson, Lee and Calo will each share a writing credit for this one.

This all came as Andrew Droz Palermo, at the last minute, took over as cinematographer for “Thunderbolts” — originally hired DP Steve Yedlin had to exit due to — am I repeating myself? — a “scheduling conflict”.

“Thunderbolts” is currently scheduled for release on May 2, 2025.