‘Thunderbolts*’ Trailer Breakdown: Meet Earth’s Angriest Heroes

There was an idea to bring together a group of remarkable people to see if they could become something more. The Thunderbolts*…are not those people, but they’re the best the Marvel Cinematic Universe has right now. The stories in Black Widow, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and even Ant-Man and the Wasp collide in the newest MCU team-up film, where a group of roguish anti-heroes unite for the greater good, and we finally have an idea of what their journey will look like thanks to the recently released trailer. Thunderbolts* has been shrouded in mystery for quite some time, with Marvel fans still debating what the asterisks at the end of the title is supposed to mean. We may not have all the answers just yet, but there are still some key details that the trailer reveals that could set up some big developments for the MCU’s future. The trailer released is fairly similar to the footage shown at the most recent San Diego Comic Con and D23 Expo, but now we’re able to really dissect what the trailer reveals and breakdown some of the big details.

Black Widow may have its issues, but there’s one thing that just about every Marvel fan agrees on with the Scarlett Johansson-led spin-off: Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh) and Red Guardian (David Harbour) are excellent new additions to the MCU. As such, it makes sense that the very first thing we see in the Thunderbolts* trailer are the two characters’ reuniting. Despite not actually being related, it’s clear that Yelena and Alexei still view each other as daughter and father respectively, with Alexei even putting on a happy face for Yelena even though he’s not in the most fulfilling of circumstances. (Another Black Widow co-star, Melina Vostokoff (Rachel Weisz), is also rumored to be returning in Thunderbolts*, though she doesn’t make an appearance in the trailer.) Florence Pugh has already promised that Thunderbolts* will show a very different side to the assassin that we got to know in Black Widow and Hawkeye. Yelena says she’s “drifting” without purpose, and that her job isn’t fulfilling her either. Granted, her job also involves killing more than a few people.