Posted in: Marvel Studios, Movies | Tagged: thunderbolts

Thunderbolts*: David Harbour Thinks Team Dynamics Rule [So Should You]

Thunderbolts* star David Harbour has seen a "very impressive" cut and believes the chemistry between people is an aspect to explore.

2025 will be a busy year for Marvel fans, and that's just with people who watch the films. While most eyes will be focused on Captain America: Brave New World coming out in February, Thunderbolts* is right around the corner in May. The film has been rumored for a long time, and the lineup we're getting is an interesting bunch of people. And a bunch of people, it is because this is a team movie at the end of the day, even if it's not the fireworks show that an Avengers film might be. After a pretty successful 2024 coming off the back of a rough 2023, it looks like 2025 will be the test of whether or not this Marvel experiment will still work on a massive scale. We still don't know much about the film, but one of the stars has seen a cut and said it's "very impressive." David Harbour is someone who has gotten the chance to play in both the Marvel and DC sandboxes. He's in the upcoming Creature Commandos and was asked about keeping things "fresh" by CinemaBlend, and Harbour confirmed the small course correction we all saw after 2023.

"Marvel is excited by its expansion, to a certain degree," Harbour replied. "And also, I think they're doing a bit of a course correction around getting too big, in a way, with the Disney+ stuff. I'm very excited for you guys to see Thunderbolts*. Because, I'm impressed with the direction they took that. And it's surprising. It's a real movie. I mean, whether you like it or not, who knows? But… I saw a cut of it, and it's very impressive."

Harbour is a man after this writer's heart because watching all of these characters bounce off of each other is what makes films like Thunderbolts* and even Creature Commandos so much fun. We saw some of these interactions with Harbour's Alexei and Florence Pugh's Yelena in Black Widow, and we're absolutely getting more of that. Harbour is so excited by seeing the chemistry human beings have with one another, platonic, not specifically romantic, and that's what he loves to dig into.

"That's what the film allows for," Harbour said about the interactions between Alexei and Yelena in the Thunderbolts* footage released so far. "They do the good things that Marvel does well. But they also… they're paying attention to chemistry. And I think there's something about this group that's special. That, to me, felt like when you watch Scarlett Johanssen and Chris Evans. When you watch these chemistries of people that – not to say that there's romantic ties, but just the chemistry of human beings interrelated. I think that's what we need in these movies. Because we want to identify. We want to have an emotional hook when you see what Downey's doing with this vulnerability and this humanity. You have all this fun, and then you have – at the center of it – a real person. And I think it's just electric."

No one on the internet is more annoyed about team dynamics than I am, and to see another actor vocalize and understand how much those little interactions elevate a production is just the bee's knees. Harbour cites getting "lost in the algorithm" regarding what works and what doesn't concerning storytelling and films, but that isn't what will make these projects work. Harbour explains it as "this ineffable quality of human beings interacting with other human beings, that's a special chemistry. It may not be nice. It may be unpleasant. But it has a certain electricity to it. And I think that that's just all over Thunderbolts*. And I'm so happy that Jake, the director, was so intent on capturing that. So intent on preserving that, and made that a priority. I was like, 'Oof, this is good.'"

It sounds like the interactions between all of the big personalities and how that will affect the film is something that was considered from the top down in Thunderbolts* which is great. The thing that kept so many people invested in Marvel for so many years is the characters, not the cinematic universe or the infinity stones, but heroes like Iron Man and Captain America and wanting to see their journeys. When you get these groups together, you see whole new sides to characters; when it works, it's what nerd dreams are made of.

Thunderbolts*: Summary, Cast List, Release Date

Marvel Studios and a crew of indie veterans who sold out present Thunderbolts*, an irreverent team-up featuring depressed assassin Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh) alongside the MCU's least anticipated band of misfits.

The film also returns to the screen Marvel Cinematic Universe characters Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), Red Guardian (David Harbour), John Walker (Wyatt Russell), Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko), Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen) and Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), in addition to some exciting new faces.

Jake Schreier directs Thunderbolts* with Kevin Feige producing. Louis D'Esposito, Brian Chapek, Jason Tamez, and Scarlett Johansson serve as executive producers.

Marvel Studios' Thunderbolts* opens in U.S. theaters on May 2, 2025.

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