Marvel’s Thunderbolts Shuts Down Production Indefinitely
Production on Marvel's upcoming Thunderbolts movie is delayed due to the ongoing writers strike.
Deadline reports that the latest film to be putting itself on pause is Thunderbolts. Part of Marvel Studios’ Phase 5, the title has already been preceded by Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 with The Marvels, Captain America: New World Order, and Blade still on the way. Filming was to begin in Atlanta in three weeks but will now be put on hold indefinitely until the strike comes to an end.
Now, almost one month into the strike, we’ve seen the late-night shows shutter their doors, with production on scripted series also being placed on a temporary hold. While Thunderbolts may be one of the first films we’re seeing push their plans back, they certainly won’t be the last as the writers’ battle for fair wages rages on. The pill will be a tough one to swallow for Marvel fans who were recently told that pre-production on Blade and the Wonder Man TV show has also been paused.
Even without the strike, Thunderbolts may have found itself pushed back as that’s just the way things are in the post-pandemic world. Marvel fans may understand the pain of waiting more than any other dedicated following as titles including Spider-Man: No Way Home, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, The Marvels, Wakanda Forever, and others faced the ever-changing tides of closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Along with the impressive docket of Phase 5 features like Thunderbolts and The Marvels, audiences will also be treated to a slew of small-screen content from Disney+ and Marvel Studios. This summer, we can expect the highly-anticipated arrival of the Samuel L. Jackson and Emilia Clarke-led series, Secret Invasion, with the second season of Loki on schedule to arrive this fall. There’s also plenty more where that came from with Echo, Ironheart, Agatha: Coven of Chaos, Daredevil: Born Again, and the sophomore season of What If…? on the way.
As for Thunderbolts, the film pushes the Avengers to the side and shows off another group of crime-fighting superheroes. While plot details haven’t been announced at this time, we know that we can expect to see characters like Ava Starr/Ghost, Yelena Belova, Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier, Alexei Shostakov/Red Guardian, Thaddeus Ross, Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, and Antonia Dreykov/Taskmaster played by Hannah John-Kamen, Florence Pugh, Sebastian Stan, David Harbour, Harrison Ford, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and Olga Kurylenko, respectively.
In addition, the Marvel film will also star Wyatt Russell, Ayo Edebiri, and Steven Yeun. With the WGA strike still going full steam ahead, the pause on Thunderbolts is presumably just the beginning of what we can expect from studios like Marvel as they take matters into their own hands and stand by the folks on the picket lines.
While many films and TV shows already have their scripts penned and in binder form, it’s a stance of solidarity for cast and crew members not to push forward with the next steps in the production process. Stay tuned for more information as it becomes available.
