Thunderbolts\* Will Be The MCU’s Toy Story 3: ‘Can They Get Out Of The Trash Can Together?’

Even when facing the worst dangers in the universe, the Avengers were always a hopeful force – do-gooders who could do this all day. But one thing’s for sure: the Thunderbolts aren’t the Avengers. The next film in the MCU assembles a brand new team-up, not of primary-coloured superheroes, but of misfits and misanthropes. There’s Florence Pugh’s Yelena Belova, a Black Widow assassin with a sarcastic streak; Sebastian Stan’s Bucky Barnes, formerly a Russian cyborg sleeper agent; Wyatt Russell’s disgraced anti-Cap, John Walker; Hannah John-Kamen’s phase-shifting foe Ghost; David Harbour’s Soviet soldier Red Guardian; the move-mirroring Taskmaster. Oh, and Lewis Pullman’s mysterious wildcard, ‘Bob’. Ideally, they’re not the crew you’d pick to save the world.

But that’s exactly what’s expected of them in Thunderbolts*. Jake Schreier’s film leans into the notion that none of these characters would be a first choice for heroism, the ‘mis-matched team forced to work together’ channelling influences from Reservoir Dogs, to Ronin, to Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol. Plus, another less-expected touchstone. “I had Toy Story 3 in there,” Schreier tells Empire in the world-exclusive Thunderbolts* issue. “It wasn’t as focused on a genre as much as dynamics amongst characters. They all have that dynamic of a team that is thrown together.” And the characters of Thunderbolts*, like those in Toy Story 3, are facing obsolescence. “That [furnace] sequence works so well because you’ve come to care about these characters so much,” says Schreier of the Pixar threequel. “Can they get out of the trash can together?”

While the Thunderbolts team can do a fair amount of damage, it’s comprised of members who have taken plenty of hits themselves. “You’re talking about a group of characters that have done a lot of bad things, and maybe are struggling with feeling good about themselves,” Schreier explains. “There’s an element that does speak to mental health, and loneliness, and how some of the darkness that we experience in our lives can’t be necessarily fixed, but can only really be made lighter through connection and finding others.” Perhaps the real message of Thunderbolts* also comes back to Toy Story: ‘You’ve got a friend in me.’

Read Empire’s full Thunderbolts* cover story – going on set of Marvel’s unexpected team-up movie with the likes of Florence Pugh, David Harbour, Sebastian Stan and more – in the May 2025 issue, on sale Thursday 13 March. Pre-order a copy online here. Thunderbolts* comes to UK cinemas on 1 May.