Thunderbolts\* Trailer: Yelena Belova And Bucky Barnes Lead A Different Kind Of Marvel Team-Up

It’s been a good while since we had a proper Marvel team-up movie. Post-Endgame, we’ve had a few dysfunctional families of galactic oddbods in Eternals and Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3. But there hasn’t been anything close to an Avengers-level event – a clash of egos, a group brought together to try and make something better than themselves. But the first trailer for Thunderbolts* (yes, the asterix is mandatory, apparently) has arrived, and teases something of an Avengers-style gathering – though rather than a group of primary-coloured do-gooders, these are all depressed antiheroes with shady pasts, each in desperate need of a second chance. Check out the extended teaser here:

There’s plenty to unpack here – notably, the first half of the trailer positioning this as something of a Yelena Belova movie, placing Florence Pugh’s Black Widow-adjacent character at the forefront. That makes sense, since her father-figure Alexei (aka David Harbour’s Red Guardian) is also part of the Thunderbolts team – and since she’s, well, Florence Pugh. But when she’s pulled into a dangerous job, it looks like she’s not the only one who’s been set-up – enter Wyatt Russell’s super-soldier John Walker, Black Widow baddie Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko), Hannah John-Kamen’s Ant-Man And The Wasp antagonist Ghost, and Lewis Pullman’s newcomer ‘Bob’ (aka Sentry), and you have a ragtag group of desperados. And that’s before you factor in Sebastian Stan's Bucky Barnes, who – yes – washes his metal arm in the dishwasher. Here’s hoping he uses Fairy Platinum on that thing.

It’s a compelling teaser, and promises plenty of grounded action – this one arrives hot on the heels of Captain America: Brave New World, hopefully a one-two punch of pacy political thrillers to kick-start Marvel's year. Elsewhere, we see the return of Julia Louis Dreyfus’ meddling Val and a brief glimpse of Geraldine Viswanathan’s incoming assistant Mel. Oh, and was that Loki’s sceptre in a glass case? Given that this is a three-and-a-half-minute teaser, there’s relatively little plot here – the real focus is on introducing the members of the team. Check them out here in poster form:

Thunderbolts* (no, really, what is that asterix about?) is directed by Jake Schreier, and comes to cinemas on 2 May – just a couple of months after Captain America: Brave New World makes its debut in mid-February. While we wait, we’re off to listen to the Pixies’ ‘Where Is My Mind?’ on a continuous loop.