Marvel Studios has a habit of enticing some of the biggest and most surprising Hollywood stars to pop up in its movies, but few additions have been as shocking as that of comedy superstar Julia Louis-Dreyfus, who debuted as Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine in Disney+’s Falcon and the Winter Soldier, before returning in the theatrical film Black Widow.
In Nick Fury fashion (which is appropriate since, in the comics, Val and Nick are/were lovers), she’s putting together a team. But this assemblage won’t be as altruistic as the Avengers. She’s forming the Thunderbolts, a group that appeared in the comics during a time when the Avengers and Fantastic Four were missing. However, it was soon revealed that these new “heroes” were actually a pack of rebranded supervillains, although, over time, many of them drifted more toward the anti-hero mindset.
Val’s first two recruits in the MCU were John Walker, the temporary Captain America, whom she remodeled into the U.S. Agent (Wyatt Russell), and Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), the sister of Natasha Romanoff, and the new Black Widow. Val dispatched Yelena to kill Clint Barton in the Hawkeye series, a mission that Yelena did not accomplish.
A Thunderbolts movie is set to arrive in July of 2024. The cast also includes Sebastian Stan (Bucky Barnes/The Winter Soldier), David Harbour (Alexei Shostakov/Red Guardian), Hannah John-Kamen (Ava Starr/Ghost), and Olga Kurylenko (Antonia Dreykov/Taskmaster), and it’s likely Harrison Ford will also appear as he has stepped into the role of Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross. He will make his MCU debut in Captain America: New World Order.
We know that at this point in time, there is no Avengers team. It’s likely that at least for a minute, the Thunderbolts will fill that void. But what is their mission?
According to RUMORS, they will ignite a war between the United States and the sovereign nation of Wakanda. If this RUMOR is true, we might get a little light shed on things when Black Panther: Wakanda Forever opens this weekend. In that film, we will see Wakanda at war with another civilization, Talocan, led by Namor the Sub-Mariner (Tenoch Huerta). It’s entirely likely that Wakanda will be an entirely different place at the end of Wakanda Forever from what we’ve seen so far.
Once again, if this RUMOR is true, it’s… interesting. Many have complained that the MCU has been rudderless since Avengers: Endgame. Now we know that things are building toward a massive Kang storyline, with the first seeds planted in Loki and leading to next year’s Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and ultimately Avengers: The Kang Dynasty. (The character, played by Jonathan Majors, may even carry over to Avengers: Secret Wars.)
But these RUMORS about the Thunderbolts possibly instigating a war with Wakanda would seemingly indicate that there are multiple directions that the MCU is heading in. One is a more cosmic catastrophe, along the lines of “The Infinity Saga,” and this one is more Earthly and grounded. I say, there’s room for both. This allows the MCU to cover more ground and present different types of stories that may appeal to those with different sensibilities.
This is all RUMOR so take it with a grain of salt. But a war between the U.S. and Wakanda could be intriguing, so long as it doesn’t just regurgitate the conflict we’re about to see in Wakanda Forever between Wakanda and Talocan. (Also… I mean, the Dora Milaje would wipe the floor with the Thunderbolts.)
Is this a conflict you’d like to see on the big screen?
