While at my local comic book store, I picked up a few issues of Thunderbolts written by Collin Kelly and illustrated by Nico Leon and Jackson Lanzing. Before reading Thunderbolts, I didn’t know anything about this superhero group. Led by Bucky Barnes, Thunderbolts feels like a much tamer and more heroic version of Suicide Squad. There was a recent teaser trailer posted online for the Thunderbolts* movie set to release in 2025. I watched the trailer and was pleasantly surprised and excited about the film.

While the trailer is three and a half minutes long, it serves as a build-up to who is a part of the group. Yelena Belova (played by Florence Pugh) is shown knocking on Red Guardian’s (played by David Harbour) door. At first, he’s disinterested, but he decides to show up. From there, there’s a scene showing fan favorite, Bucky Barnes (played by Sebastian Stan) along with disgruntled John Walker (played by Wyatt Russell) who is uninterested in his mundane life. The group gets together and meets Bob (played by Lewis Pullman) who is trying to figure out why they’re there. The lights go out and a timer counts down with the group realizing they have been set up, but unclear as to who would want them gone.

I’m not sure how comic book-accurate this is, but I like the interconnections between the members of the Thunderbolts. Seeing Yelena and Red Guardian together again is fun, I like the banter they have together. l liked the Black Widow movie a lot and it seems like it’s been forgotten about in the Marvel universe, so having the Thunderbolts keep some of the characters around brings everything together. I love seeing Lewis Pullman in this who oddly enough plays another character named Bob. For those who are unfamiliar, Lewis Pullman was in Top Gun Maverick and his call sign was Bob. With both Bucky Barnes and John Walker appearing, this movie will link back to The Falcon and The Winter Soldier. I completely forgot about Ava Starr (played by Hannah John-Kamen) from Ant-Man and the Wasp. It will be interesting to see how these characters interact with each other.

Besides the cast, I don’t know anything else about this movie. Is Julia Louis-Dreyfus’s character the main villain; I’m not quite sure. After the first two and a half minutes of the trailer, it shows various action scenes between Yelena breaking into a government lab and Bob being shot at, there isn’t much else I know about this movie. With that said, I love action films, so I’m sure by seeing this movie in theaters, I will be entertained.

Re-watching the trailer, I think Thunderbolts is going for the Suicide Squad vibe, but it feels off. If I had to decide why, I don’t genuinely believe all of these characters are bad like I do with Suicide Squad. An exception could be made for John Walker. For Bucky, I see him as a victim. Yes, he’s a contract killer, but he also had his mind wiped. I don’t want to justify his actions necessarily, but I don’t see him as evil. Yelena could be put in a similar category. For Suicide Squad, these are comic book villains and I don’t see that with the Thunderbolts. It’s not like it makes me like this group any less, I wouldn’t think of these groups as one of the same.

I’m looking forward to this and I’m interested to see more trailers the closer it gets to the movie’s release. We have had a lull in superhero films which has been a nice break, but I’m curious to see what Marvel has planned in the future for their superheroes.