The powers that be have assembled various teams across the Marvel Cinematic Universe. We’ve had the Avengers, Earth’s Mightiest Heroes; then intergalactic ‘a-holes’, the Guardians Of The Galaxy; see also, the god-like Eternals. But there’s never been a superhero team-up like the Thunderbolts. In part because they’re not exactly heroes, consisting of grey-area allies at best (Florence Pugh’s Yelena Belova and Sebastian Stan’s Bucky Barnes), and borderline-villains at worst (Hannah John-Kamen’s Ghost, or Wyatt Russell’s anti-Cap, John Walker). But also because they’re not exactly ‘super’ either, with barely a special power between them. So, what happens when a motley crew of not-super not-heroes is tasked with saving the world?
The new issue of Empire goes on set of Marvel’s Thunderbolts* (yes, the asterisk is a whole thing) in search of answers, speaking to the starry cast – including Pugh, Stan, John-Kamen and Russell, plus David Harbour and Lewis Pullman – and director Jake Schreier about creating the unlikeliest team-up this side of the multiverse. Inside, we get to grips with an unexpected new tone for the MCU, meet the team of underdog misfits in the flesh, and wrestle with the true meaning of that pesky asterisk. All that, and it’s packed with never-before-seen images from a very different kind of Marvel movie.
This month’s newsstand cover puts the ‘car’ in carnage, packing the entire Thunderbolts team in the back of a bullet-ridden ride.
And the subscriber cover presents the team in comic book form, illustrated exclusively for Empire by Mark Brooks.
And that’s not all. Inside this month’s issue, we also get up and running with Edgar Wright’s The Running Man, cause HAVOC with legendary action filmmaker Gareth Evans, get fungal fever with the return of The Last Of Us, delve inside the most emotional episode of the new season of Black Mirror, set our scopes on Alex Garland’s Warfare, ride the wave with Nicolas Cage on whacked-out thriller The Surfer, and get exclusive insights into the Avatar writers’ room with James Cameron and his collaborators. It’s packed with more goodies than you could cram into the back of the Thunderbolts’ bucket-o’-bolts car.
Pick up the Thunderbolts* issue on newsstands from Thursday 13 March. Or, pre-order a copy online here. Thunderbolts* comes to UK cinemas on 1 May.