Amid the planning stages of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s integration of the Fantastic Four and the X-Men, another team will be making its way to the big screen in Thunderbolts. The team is named after General Thunderbolt Ross, who is to now be played by Harrison Ford, replacing the late William Hurt. It comprises of anti-hero supporting characters of past Marvel films, including Yelena, Bucky Barnes, Taskmaster, John Walker, Red Guardian, Ghost, and Valentina Allegra de Fontaine.
The film was penned for a first pass by Black Widow writer, Eric Pearson, but Variety now reports that the creator of the upcoming Netflix series, Beef, Lee Sung Jin has been brought on to do rewrites on the script. While promoting Beef, Lee tells Variety, “I’m rewriting it. It’s the whole squad again. Jake asked me if I would come on board. I probably should have taken a break, but there’s a lot of themes and exciting things about the movie that I couldn’t help but sign on.” Lee is referring to the director of Thunderbolts, Jake Schreier, who reunites with both Lee and Beef star, Steven Yeun. Yeun’s character has not yet been revealed.
Lee continues, “It’s truly an honor to be part of a Marvel thing, but it is very different. One, it’s not my project, it’s Jake’s. It’s such a large scope and scale that the type of writing is very different. At the same time, the process feels the same. I’m still talking to Jake every day. … I think once you find the squad of people you love and trust and are so talented, you do everything you can to keep working with them.”
It was announced recently that Steven Yeun joined the ensemble cast that already includes David Harbour returning as Red Guardian, Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes/The Winter Soldier, Florence Pugh as Yelena Belova, Olga Kurylenko as Taskmaster, Wyatt Russell as John Walker/US Agent, Hannah John-Kamen as Ghost, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Valentina Allegra de Fontaine.
Thunderbolts will be the conclusion of Marvel’s phase five, which just started with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, and is set to film this June for a scheduled release on July 26, 2024.