“The Avengers aren’t coming,” says Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) in the latest (and supposedly last) trailer for Marvel’s Thunderbolts*. Who, then, will keep the American people safe?
Follow-up question, Valentina: Why just the American people? And also where are the Avengers?
These are not the questions this trailer finds interesting, though; it just wants to show us how difficult it is to put together a team of relative screw-ups. It seems Bucky (Sebastian Stan) is the one who brings the rest of them—Yelena (Florence Pugh), Red Guardian (David Harbour), Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko), and John Walker (Wyatt Russell)—together to fight a mysterious new enemy who has the unnerving power to turn fleeing humans into little smears of ash.
This seems like a tough power to fight back against! But they will find a way, eventually, surely. Notably, this trailer does not want you to think or wonder much about Lewis Pullman’s character, Bob, which has made some people assume he’s the villain. Cinemablend has another theory about who said villain is, if you’re curious.
I’m not sure it matters. Thunderbolts* will live or die on the buddy-comedy vibes among its reluctant teammates, and this trailer is really trying to work the wacky-it-shouldn’t-work-but-it-will vibes, with a classic ’80s earworm to tie it all together (“Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now,” by Starship).
As long as they wind up on a Wheaties box, Red Guardian will be happy. Thunderbolts* is directed by Jake Schreier (Paper Towns); the screenply is by Eric Pearson (Black Widow), Lee Sung Jin (Beef), and Joanna Calo (The Bear). It’s in theaters May 2nd.
