With the current crop of shows and movies by Marvel Studios, fans are gearing up to enter the next phase of the MCU with the release of Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania. The movie will eventually lead to the introduction of Thunderbolts, a group of elite super-soldiers and superheroes that will become Val and General Thaddeus Ross’ team of remarkable people that get the craziest of top-secret assignments done without a hitch.
Throughout the ending films of the fourth phase of the MCU, we have repeatedly seen the character of the CIA director Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, a.k.a Val making appearances in both the movies as well as the web series of the MCU, trying to recruit some fine candidates for the job of her covert operatives. Although the plan seems to be going perfectly for her, the lore of the Thunderbolts and developments in the MCU suggests that she won’t be the leader of the team for long enough.
Kingpin Will Takeover The Thunderbolts!
Marvel Studios confirmed the inclusion of Daredevil into the MCU with the cameo of Charlie Cox as Matt Murdock in Spider-Man: No Way Home. And with the subsequent appearance of Vincent D’Onofrio as Kingpin in Hawkeye, it is clear that these characters will connect the threads of the MCU as the story progresses. And as seen before, Marvel Studios tries to follow the lore of Marvel Comics as much as they possibly can, which considering they are still doing with new projects, spells doom for Val and Thaddeus Ross and their team of Superhumans.
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In the comics, it has been depicted that the team known as Thunderbolts is a team of super baddies that work for the CIA director Valentina Allegra de Fontaine along with General Thaddeus Ross as their head of superhuman operatives for special missions that require an extraordinary touch. With the news that Harrison Ford would be joining the cast as General Ross, it is confirmed that Thunderbolts will serve as an introductory film to the team. But along the progression of the narration, it is also stated in the comics that Wilson Fisk takes control of the team, making it into his own private army of sorts.
Considering Marvel Studios follow the narration of Mayor Wilson Fisk from the comics in the upcoming Daredevil: Born Again, they will be able to connect the underworld godfather of the MCU to the CIA director. Being the Mayor of New York, Fisk will have access to knowledge and power which he can exploit to manipulate, extort and use any other dirty trick in his book to take control over the superhuman team and use their power to control the underworld from the shadows. We got a glimpse of this in Netflix’s Daredevil, where we saw agents Nadeem and Pointdexter being blackmailed and extorted to play Kingpin’s sick game and help him to take over the CIA from the inside.
As for the initial stages, Val And Ross will be in charge of the team, but subsequently will be picked out and erased from the picture through evil tactics and the sheer force of Mayor Fisk, who will probably have control over most of the resources in the underworld and the government.
What To Expect From Thunderbolts?
It has been confirmed that David Harbour will be returning as the Red Guardian in the upcoming film, with Florence Pugh’s Yelena Belova also making her presence known in the film. Apart from them, most of the characters that Val had approached in the past films and shows are also said to make an appearance, but the core team has still not been disclosed as of yet. If taking notes from the comic lore again, we can expect Daniel Bhrul’s Baron Zemo to be part of the team as well, alongside many familiar and new faces from both MCU and Daredevil universes.
If Kingpin will truly takes over the Thunderbolts, then he will also become an integral part of the MCU’s upcoming phases.
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Thunderbolts, in cinemas on 26 July 2024.
