Sebastian Stan, Wyatt Russell talk ‘Thunderbolts*’
Sebastian Stan and Wyatt Russell tell USA TODAY what it was like returning to the Marvel family in “Thunderbolts*.”
Bucky Barnes’ life hasn’t been a barrel of laughs.
In nearly 15 years of Marvel movies, Sebastian Stan’s character has been through the wringer: Bucky “died” in World War II, was turned into the infamous international assassin Winter Soldier, tried to kill his best friend, caused an Avengers civil war, and was blipped out of existence.
The new movie “Thunderbolts*” (in theaters May 2) shows a different side to Bucky. Once he was brainwashed, now he’s washing his mechanical arm next to the knives and forks. He’s also seen spilling a messy sandwich all over himself.
“It’s fun and hilarious for me,” says Stan, who is at this point an elder statesman in the cinematic universe. “I was able to finally kind of tap into maybe what his sense of humor is, which I never would’ve thought when we did (2014’s) ‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier.’ ”
The latest Marvel adventure puts a spotlight on Bucky and other supporting players from Marvel projects. Russian assassin Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh) and her boisterous dad, Red Guardian (David Harbour), the foster family of Black Widow, are front and center. Also along for the ride: John Walker (Wyatt Russell), a disgraced former Captain America and now U.S. Agent, and Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), whose invisibility has done a number on her psyche. All have done bad things but have to look at the darkness inside for the sake of redemption.
“Thunderbolts*” discusses “themes of feeling like an outsider, uncomfortable in your own skin. Feeling isolated, even depressed, ashamed, those are not happy feelings,” says Julia Louis-Dreyfus, who plays antagonistic CIA director Valentina Allegra de Fontaine. The movie is about “peeling back the layers on that and to understand where you’ve been in order to figure out where you’re going.”
‘Thunderbolts*’ story got a boost from ‘The Bear,’ ‘Beef’ creators
The scrappy antiheroes team up to take on Valentina, their former employer, who tries to trick them into murdering each other. From the start, Eric Pearson’s original “Thunderbolts*” script was meant to be a flip on the “Suicide Squad” mold, about characters who need to learn to work together.
But the introduction of Bob (Lewis Pullman), a guy with amnesia who becomes the extremely powerful Sentry, unlocked an emotional narrative for director Jake Schreier. He enlisted the help of writers Joanna Calo (“The Bear”) and Lee Sung Jin (“Beef”) to tackle a mental health angle as each character faces their past in The Void, an otherworldly surrealist space caused by Bob’s appearance.
The Bob storyline was personal for Schreier: “I tracked it to a friend of mine who’s gone through a lot of this stuff. These heights that you could reach, and the hubris that it takes to get there, but then this self-destructive depression and isolation that almost seems linked (and) you needed to learn to find some balance or middle ground.”
Bob is “a very difficult character to wrap your head around,” Pullman adds. “Whether it’s Marvel or not, the continuity and the complexities of this man is very nebulous at times.”
‘Thunderbolts*’: Marvel castoffs get their own movie adventure
Ace assassin Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh) teams with her dad, Red Guardian (David Harbour), and other unlikely heroes in Marvel’s “Thunderbolts*.”
Wyatt Russell’s John Walker faces a father’s ‘horrible’ shame
The returning Marvel characters also have to take on a lot psychologically. Walker’s rise and fall were one of the main storylines in the Disney+ series “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier,” and in “Thunderbolts*” he needs a win desperately: His wife has left him and taken their baby daughter.
Walker grows as a person during the movie – he “now can take a hint and understands how to be part of a team a little more,” Russell says. But Walker also faces a “shame room” in The Void that originally was written as an argument between Walker and his wife. Because Russell thought a child should be involved, it turned into a scene where Walker neglects his kid while reading an exposé about himself on his phone.
“Seeing your lack of empathy to your own child and to your own experience, through your own eyes, is really sad. That’s a horrible moment for him that he doesn’t want anybody to know,” Russell says. “As a father myself, there’s nothing more special than your children. And there’s nothing more difficult than knowing that you’re not being the best father that you can be. He knows he can’t go back to that moment and actually get that time back and that crushes me.”
‘Thunderbolts*’ stars are already at work on ‘Avengers: Doomsday’
But alongside the deep themes at play, “Thunderbolts*” offers goofy interactions between its main characters and a heartwarming bond that forms among the team. Which is nice since most of the Thunderbolts will be returning for Marvel’s “Avengers: Doomsday” (out May 1, 2026). That started filming this week and revealed its cast in March via livestreamed empty director’s chairs.
“My brain always just goes to, I hope the movie’s good,” Russell says. “But you look at your name on the back of that chair and you’re like, ‘This is so cool. What a crazy experience.’ ” While Louis-Dreyfus didn’t get a “Doomsday” chair, “I stand at the ready. Also, at this point, I’m not really allowed to say too much, let’s just put it that way,” she teases.
Stan appeared in the last two “Avengers” movies, “Infinity War” and “Endgame,” and those “felt so out of this world in terms of achievement and being able to get all those people together and everything. So how do you build from there to this?” the actor says. Stan is looking forward to working with the legacy “X-Men” actors such as Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart, plus seeing Robert Downey Jr. as Doctor Doom.
Russell views the Marvel universe as a big summer camp. He felt a little awkward at first doing the “Winter Soldier” TV show with Stan and Anthony Mackie, “and then (with ‘Thunderbolts*’) I was like, ‘I’m not the new kid! All right!’ That was a fun feeling.”
He grins, joking with Stan: “And you started the summer camp.”
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