Marvel’s Misfits Hit Big: Florence Pugh-Led “Thunderbolts*” Strikes a Chord With Critics

By The Credits  |  April 30, 2025

The reviews for Thunderbolts* are hitting the internet like so many lightning strikes, and Marvel Studios is very much liking the weather report. Director Jake Schreier’s film about this assemblage of Marvel misfits—Rolling Stone‘s David Fear calls them the “off-brand Avengers“—who were all scooped from previous MCU outings and thrown together like possibly toxic leftover ingredients, has resulted in something satisfying. Thunderbolts* is being hailed as a surprisingly soulful, character-driven return to form for a studio that had dominated the superhero space for years.

The vibe of Thunderbolts* (the asterisk means, by the way, that “the Avengers aren’t available”) has felt different from the start, and something both Marvel and the creatives involved have made clear. Star Florence Pugh said that making the film felt like a “bad ass indie, A24-feeling assassin movie.” The crew of Thunderbolts* certainly speaks to a very different kind of MCU movie—helmer Schreier was the director of the A24-produced, Netflix-distributed gangbusters dark comedy Beef.  The Bear‘s Joanna Calo co-wrote the script, while folks from a slew of critically acclaimed A24 films filled out the ranks, including cinematographer Andrew Droz Palermo from The Green Knight, Minari editor Harry Yoon, and Everything Everywhere All At Once composer Son Lux.

Thunderbolts* is led by Pugh’s Yelena Belova, who, along with Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan), John Walker/U.S. Agent (Wyatt Russell), Alexei Shostakov/Red Guardian (David Harbour), Ava Starr/Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), and Antonia Dreykov/Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko) is cornered in a death trap set by the triple agent Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), which has the side effect of forcing them to team up to confront their pasts and become a cohesive, or at least functionally collaborative, fighting force.

Schreier told Empire he was advised by Marvel to make “something different.” He added, “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.”

Now that the reviews are out, it’s looking like Schreier and his cast and crew have succeeded. Thunderbolts* strikes theaters on May 2, and while that asterisk tells us it’s still a little too early to assemble the Avengers, for now, it appears we don’t need them.

Check out a quick glimpse at what the critics are saying below:

Featured image: (L-R) John Walker (Wyatt Russell), Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen) and Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh) in Marvel Studios’ THUNDERBOLTS*. Photo courtesy of Marvel Studios. © 2024 MARVEL.

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The Credits

The Credits is the Motion Picture Association's online platform that profiles below-the-line filmmakers and TV creators. Through in-depth interviews and coverage, we shine a spotlight on all the individuals who are indispensable to the entertainment industry and create the films and series we love.