THUNDERBOLTS Described As A "BLACK WIDOW Sequel" By Marvel Studios Director Of Visual Development

The upcoming Thunderbolts movie looks an awful lot like a Black Widow sequel, and that's seemingly been confirmed by a Marvel Studios executive. Find more details on the MCU's take on the team here...

By JoshWilding - Jan 28, 2023 07:01 PM EST

Filed Under: Black Widow

When Marvel Studios revealed the Thunderbolts roster at last year's D23, the response from fans probably isn't what Kevin Feige and company expected. With a team mostly comprised of super soldiers and Black Widow characters, many were quick to express disappointment over a take on the Thunderbolts that's a little...boring...compared to the comics.

The rumoured presence of The Sentry could help matters, of course, while we're hoping for at least one or two surprise additions to the group.

However, if you've been among those arguing that Thunderbolts is basically a Black Widow sequel, that was basically confirmed by Marvel Studios Director of Visual Development Andy Park in a now-edited Instagram post.

"Taskmaster, the Red Guardian, Yelena and Valentina Allegra de Fontaine will be returning in the upcoming Thunderbolts film," he said. "It’s like it’s a Black Widow sequel [and] these movies are connected or something! It’s gonna get interesting."

Park may have spoken out of turn or simply realised his comments could be misconstrued. Either way, they're unlikely to ease the minds of fans who expect Thunderbolts to be an expansion of Black Widow (and The Falcon and The Winter Soldier to a lesser extent).

The 2021 blockbuster was a lot of fun, and those characters definitely deserve to be revisited. However, when fans think about the Thunderbolts, characters like Baron Zemo, Songbird, and even Luke Cage quickly come to mind. As for the MCU's take on this team, Ghost is the only character who shares a history with them on the page.

We'll see what happens, but it's definitely too soon to write this one off. Recently, there have been rumblings that Ghost might have been cut, though we've since learned those rumours were incorrect.

Thunderbolts is set to be released in theaters on July 26. 2024.

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A post shared by Andy Park (@andyparkart)

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109 Comments

1 2 3

MyCoolYoung - 1/28/2023, 7:29 PM

Andy is drunk and not the entertaining "look, gusto is drunk on a random Wednesday morning" someone take his phone, please

bkmeijer1 - 1/29/2023, 4:55 AM

@MyCoolYoung - who is Andy?

MyCoolYoung - 1/29/2023, 11:08 AM

@bkmeijer1 - Andy Park lol the concept artist

bkmeijer1 - 1/29/2023, 11:35 AM

@MyCoolYoung - oh gotcha. I totally read over his first name and only saw the quote being attributed to Park.

tmp3 - 1/28/2023, 7:32 PM

never got around to seeing black widow, so probably won’t get around to this either, unless they cast someone really interesting like alex skarsgard for sentry.

Tasmaniac - 1/29/2023, 12:08 AM

@tmp3 - Don’t bother. Apart from the opening sequence, which had a totally different tone to the rest of the film, it was complete shit.

mountainman - 1/29/2023, 9:13 AM

@Tasmaniac - It really felt like it was going to be a MCU mission impossible movie for a minute there. Then they got us with the MCU schtick.

Tasmaniac - 1/29/2023, 4:00 PM

@mountainman - That sequence had such a bleak tone, I thought “Ok, wow, this is grim. This is cool.” Aaand then it went to being completely homogenous, over the top CGI bullshit with ridiculous plot choices.

mountainman - 1/30/2023, 11:59 AM

@Tasmaniac - My feelings exactly. It’s like they started off trying to go the Winter Soldier route with a unique MCU movie that has something to say. But then there must have been a studio mandate for more mindless CGI scenes, stupid childish jokes, and abandoning the interesting themes and arcs. The only worthwhile scene in the second half of the movie is the dinner table scene.

santoanderson - 1/28/2023, 7:37 PM

Black Widow has a really strong and unique opening, a fun middle 45 minutes, and a bland, stereotypical MCU third act. It should have been a pure espionage movie — Jason Bourne stuff. The movie didn’t need magic mind control drugs and flying sky fortresses.

Matchesz - 1/28/2023, 7:39 PM

Its the fact they used a grown ass man to play taskmaster then had a woman in the costume when he took of his mask for me

abd00bie - 1/28/2023, 11:33 PM

@Matchesz - what if it was stark tech lol and she just put on the suit like how pepper did when his mansion got smashed

MCUKnight11 - 1/28/2023, 7:41 PM

Well I admire the honesty.

Urubrodi - 1/28/2023, 7:48 PM

Taskmaster aside, Yelena and Red Guardian were great, the highlights of that movie in my opinion.

DocSpock - 1/28/2023, 8:06 PM

If this is done in the style of Winter Soldier, it could be great.

If it is done in the style of Thor 4 or even Ant-Man & Wasp, it could be really tedious.

Fill this with espionage with stakes, like killing one of the seemingly important characters.

We don't need a jokey minor league team just having a movie filler until they join the major leaguers in Kang Dynasty & Secret Wars.

Make it hard hitting, and do some serious damage.

OriginalGusto1 - 1/28/2023, 8:23 PM

@DocSpock - Well, if you were done in the style of something...anything cool, we wouldn't be having this conversation.

1 2 3

THUNDERBOLTS Described As A "BLACK WIDOW Sequel" By Marvel Studios Director Of Visual Development

The upcoming Thunderbolts movie looks an awful lot like a Black Widow sequel, and that's seemingly been confirmed by a Marvel Studios executive. Find more details on the MCU's take on the team here...

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