British actress Florence Pugh has taken centre stage in a new trailer for the upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) movie Thunderbolts*.
Pugh, who was nominated for a best supporting actress Oscar for Little Women, will return to playing Yelena Belova in the 2025 film about antiheroes following her appearances in Black Widow and Hawkeye as the Russian assassin character.
She will star alongside other reformed supervillains including Winter Soldier/Bucky Barnes, played by Sebastian Stan, Alexei Shostakov/Red Guardian, played by David Harbour, and Olga Kurylenko as Antonia Dreykov/Taskmaster.
The teaser sees Yelena visiting Alexei, who is a father-figure to her, and Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow, played by Scarlett Johansson, at home in his run-down apartment where she asks if he is “fulfilled”.
When questioned why she is wondering, Yelena responds saying: “There’s something wrong with me, an emptiness, I’m just drifting and I don’t have purpose.”
There she is shot at by John Walker/US Agent (Wyatt Russell), who appeared in The Falcon And The Winter Soldier series alongside Bucky, while a character called Bob (Lewis Pullman), who will reportedly play Sentry, holds his hands-up.
The doors then come down on the group, while Yelena ponders that someone is trying to kill them for all the crimes they have committed as a timer approaches zero.
During a swirl of action sequences, Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) director Valentina Allegra de Fontaine provides a voice-over, saying that “there are bad guys, and there are worse guys”, seeming to point towards a team-up.
She also tells the group including Bucky, Yelena, and Ant-Man And The Wasp character Ava Starr/Ghost, played by Hannah John-Kamen, and Alexei, they are “so adorable”.
The final sequence shows them being attacked, while driving, and then appearing to be shot at by Bucky, who had previously been an antagonist when he was brainwashed by Hydra during Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
In the Marvel Comics, the Thunderbolts team has been made-up of Hawkeye, Green Goblin, Black Widow, Ant-Man, Elektra, Deadpool, Alexei, and Punisher.
The film, directed by Jake Schreier, is set for a May 2025 release.
