Florence Pugh has described Thunderbolts, the upcoming Marvel film, as having an indie aesthetic reminiscent of an A24 production. Speaking with Empire, Pugh, who reprises her role as Yelena Belova, said the film has a different tone compared to standard Marvel releases.
“It ended up becoming this quite badass indie, A24-feeling assassin movie with Marvel superheroes,” Pugh said. The film, which follows a group of antiheroes on a dangerous mission, is expected to stand apart from previous MCU projects.
Director Jake Schreier, best known for his work on Beef, said the film carries a distinct emotional weight. “There’s a certain amount of that Beef tone in it, that does feel different,” he said. “There’s an emotional darkness that we brought to this that is resonant, but doesn’t come at the expense of comedy.”
Marvel leaned into this unconventional tone in a recent teaser titled “Absolute Cinema,” which highlights the indie talent behind the project. The trailer includes references to The Green Knight, Hereditary, Minari, and Everything Everywhere All at Once, emphasizing the film’s unique influences.
Despite this marketing approach, Thunderbolts remains a major studio film, with a budget exceeding $150 million. However, the studio’s decision to emphasize indie credentials suggests an effort to offer something fresh, especially as superhero fatigue and declining box office performance have raised concerns for Marvel’s recent releases.
Pugh leads a cast that includes Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes, David Harbour as Red Guardian, Hannah John-Kamen as Ghost, Olga Kurylenko as Taskmaster, Wyatt Russell as John Walker, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Valentina Allegra de Fontaine. The story follows the team as they confront their past while navigating a high-stakes operation.
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Schreier also revealed an unexpected source of inspiration—Toy Story 3. “It wasn’t as focused on a genre as much as dynamics amongst characters,” he explained. “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.”
The film also explores struggles with identity and self-worth. “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 said. “There’s an element that does speak to isolation and how some of the darkness that we experience in our lives can’t necessarily be fixed, but can only really be made lighter through connection and finding others.”
Thunderbolts is set for release in theaters on May 2.
