Fan Favorite Marvel Villain Returning In Thunderbolts?
Daniel Bruhl hinted that his Baron Zemo character could be coming to Marvel's Thunderbolts.
This article is more than 2 years old
Will Baron Zemo be in the upcoming Thunderbolts movie? Fans were stunned when actor Daniel Brühl was not on the cast list for the film, but Radio Times reports that we haven’t seen the last of the Sokovian supervillain. Brühl himself dropped hints that he might just make an appearance after all.
“Even if I could… I couldn’t, you know,” he told interviewers when asked to give clues as to why he was omitted from the cast list. “The only thing I can say, everybody knows – is I’m not dead!”
Thunderbolts is set to follow Bucky Barnes, aka The Winter Soldier, Countess Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, Yelena Belova, and Red Guardian, among other Marvel Cinematic Universe antiheroes. The group was assembled by Baron Zemo to take over the world, only to wind up saving it. Given the comic book plot, it was expected that Baron Zemo would be in the cast of the movie about the group.
This may still mean he will not be in the Thunderbolts movie, despite Baron Zemo’s role in the comics. However, it is clear from what has already been established by Marvel Cinematic Universe content that Baron Zemo is indeed still alive, which means he still has a role to play in events as they unfold through Phases 5 and 6.
The comic book Thunderbolts had several members come and go throughout the series, with the group even breaking up at one point when some of the antiheroes wanted to return to villainy.
There is thus plenty of room for Baron Zemo to come back to the Marvel Studios movies, including future Thunderbolts movies. We can only speculate about how the movies will show his role in the creation of the Thunderbolts, and what covert maneuverings he would have to make from a Wakandan prison in order to form this mirror organization to the Avengers. If that is not his role in the movies, what further mischief can we expect from Baron Zemo?
While Sebastian Stan, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Florence Pugh, and David Harbour have all been confirmed as part of the Thunderbolts cast, Daniel Brühl was conspicuously absent. Zemo was first introduced in Captain America: Civil War and was seen being transferred to Wakanda at the end of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, where he was featured in five episodes of the mini-series. Baron Zemo figures highly in the Thunderbolts story on paper, so it is a mystery why he was not named in the on-screen version.
Daniel Brühl is currently starring in a remake of All Quiet on the Western Front, a German-language period piece on Netflix that tells the story of a young soldier and the harsh reality of World War I. Brühl plays Matthias Erzberger, a politician who protested the war and was a part of ending it. The actor has been giving interviews to promote that film, and couldn’t resist dropping a hint about his character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
With so many Avengers retiring or dying after the fight with Thanos in Avengers: Endgame, the world of the Marvel Cinematic Universe needs a new team of super-powered saviors to protect it from alien invasions and sinister organizations. With or without Baron Zemo, the Thunderbolts may just have to take on that mantle.
