It stars an ensemble cast featuring Florence Pugh, Sebastian Stan, David Harbour, Wyatt Russell, Olga Kurylenko, Lewis Pullman, Geraldine Viswanathan, Chris Bauer, Wendell Edward Pierce, Hannah John-Kamen, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus.

A group of antiheroes are caught in a deadly trap by Valentina Allegra de Fontaine and are forced into a dangerous mission that could bring them redemption if they unite as a team.

[1] Additionally, Laurence Fishburne and Rachel Weisz are expected to reprise their respective MCU roles as Bill Foster and Melina Vostokoff.

[20] Speculation that a Thunderbolts team would be introduced to the MCU began in mid-2019 following the announcement that Daniel Brühl would appear as Helmut Zemo in the Disney+ series The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (2021), reprising his role from the film Captain America: Civil War (2016).

[22][23] That series introduced Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Valentina Allegra de Fontaine and shows her recruiting Wyatt Russell's John Walker / U.S.

De Fontaine is also shown to be working with Florence Pugh's Yelena Belova in the post-credits scene of the film Black Widow (2021).

Head writer Malcolm Spellman felt there was "a lot of chatter" around the team's potential introduction to the MCU and stated, "I don't know if fans are crazy or not".

Agent, Ghost, Taskmaster, Abomination, Bucky Barnes, or Clint Barton, with de Fontaine or Zemo leading the team.

[26][23][24][28][29] Deadline Hollywood also suggested that Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross could be recast for the film following original actor William Hurt's death in March 2022,[26][29] since that character has strong ties to the team in the comics.

[31] In September 2022, Justin Kroll of Deadline Hollywood described the film as being a spin-off for Belova because she was expected to lead the antihero team, with Pugh, Russell, and Brühl believed to be reprising their roles.

[32] At the D23 Expo the same month, Pugh, Russell, John-Kamen, and Louis-Dreyfus were confirmed to star, alongside Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes, David Harbour as Alexei Shostakov / Red Guardian, and Olga Kurylenko as Antonia Dreykov / Taskmaster, all reprising their roles from previous MCU projects.

[2] Harbour said the film would be unique in the MCU, describing the main cast as "a bunch of misfits and outcasts and losers and people who don't really live up to the super in superhero".

[18] Writers for Entertainment Weekly and Esquire interpreted later comments made by Feige as confirmation that Ford would not be appearing in Thunderbolts.

[45] Grace Yun was set as production designer by April after doing so on Beef,[46] and cinematographer Steve Yedlin was working on the film in Atlanta, Georgia, by May.

[51][74] Andrew Droz Palermo serves as cinematographer, after previously working on the Marvel Studios series Moon Knight (2022),[75] with the film being shot for IMAX.

[77] The next month, Feige confirmed that Thunderbolts* was the official title and said the use of the asterisk would be explained following the film's release,[78] which led to continued speculation as to its meaning.

[9][79] Following online leaks of the San Diego Comic-Con footage, Marvel released an official look at the Thunderbolts team within their video celebrating the company's 85th anniversary.

[96] Tom Power at TechRadar said the teaser was a longer and higher quality version of the previously leaked footage, and felt the film was "looking very good".

Club, Mary Kate Carr noted the various mysteries surrounding the film—including the asterisk in its title—and said the teaser "valiantly" refused to give up any secrets or plot details.

[1] Commentators noted that the trailer appeared to confirm speculation that the titular team would be fighting the Void, the malevolent alter-ego of Bob / Sentry.

[99][100] In the trailer, Red Guardian expresses hope that the team's achievements would get them featured on the cover of Wheaties, a cereal known for putting sports figures on its boxes and the slogan "The Breakfast of Champions".

[103] James Whitbrook of Gizmodo and Scott Collura from IGN both believed the footnote fit with the film's marketing approach of presenting the team as a ragtag humorous group of heroes,[93][94] rather than the asterisk being an "actual serious mystery".