Marvel Releases Indie-Style ‘Thunderbolts*’ Trailer As Florence Pugh Calls MCU Film A “Badass Indie, A24-Feeling Assassin Movie”

In May, Marvel Studios is hoping that their next film “Thunderbolts*” is going to be attractive enough to avoid more hiccups or underwhelming results at the global box office. A new teaser spot is aiming to court a cinephile crowd and folks behind the film are also trying to convince skeptics that this new one is coming from a place that embraces the independent film spirit like projects from A24.

While speaking with Empire Magazine, star Florence Pugh, returning to the role of Yelena Belova (a product of the Black Widow program), she talked up the project as feeling like an indie thriller from A24. “It ended up becoming this quite badass indie, A24-feeling assassin movie with Marvel superheroes,” Pugh told Empire.

READ MORE: Lewis Pullman Still Won’t Confirm Sentry Role, But Calls Marvel’s ‘Thunderbolts*’ Director A “Genius”

Director Jake Schreier (“Beef”) backed up his actress with his own thoughts, “There’s a certain amount of that ‘Beef’ tone in it, that does feel different…There’s an emotional darkness that we brought to this that is resonant, but doesn’t come at the expense of comedy.”

These quotes are quite the sales pitch to a growing number of folks getting overwhelmed or simply bored with superhero films, given the oversaturation of the genre.

This comes after Marvel has been amplifying an “Absolute Cinema” teaser trailer that originated from Letterboxd highlighting the film’s connective tissue to other cool flicks that are popular on the film/television-focused social media platform.

The rest of the cast features David Harbour, Hannah John-Kamen, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Sebastian Stan, Wyatt Russell, Geraldine Viswanathan, Lewis Pullman, and Olga Kurylenko.

A synopsis for the upcoming MCU flick:

In “Thunderbolts*,” Marvel Studios assembles an unconventional team of antiheroes — Yelena Belova, Bucky Barnes, Red Guardian, Ghost, Taskmaster, and John Walker. After finding themselves ensnared in a death trap set by Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, these disillusioned castoffs must embark on a dangerous mission that will force them to confront the darkest corners of their pasts. Will this dysfunctional group tear themselves apart, or find redemption and unite as something much more before it’s too late?

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“Thunderbolts*” will hit theaters on May 2 and you can watch that lovely new teaser below.

Exclusive new look at @MarvelStudios' THUNDERBOLTS* starring Florence Pugh, Sebastian Stan, David Harbour, Wyatt Russell, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus 👀

The film will be released in theaters on May 2. pic.twitter.com/CQEL2zqlIU

— Letterboxd (@letterboxd) March 7, 2025