Thunderbolts* isn’t Marvel’s Suicide Squad, because director Jake Schreier thinks there’s more to this team than meets the eye. We caught up with the filmmaker to chat about all things Thunderbolts*, including what Lewis Pullman brought as Bob after Steven Yeun’s departure, the difficulty of adapting the original Thunderbolts comic book series, and an appreciation for James Gunn.
Fortress of Solitude: Lewis Pullman replaced Steven Yeun in Thunderbolts* after scheduling conflicts. What, if any, changes did you make to the character to accommodate the switch in actors?
Jake Schreier: From a writing perspective, not a lot. I think what you always want with any actor is to explore what points of connection they find with that character, and so it was a new process with Lewis, who is so open and so committed to figuring out all the levels of that character. And it is such a complex set of dimensionality that you need to explore to make that work. He and I would just get together every weekend and go through line by line within the scenes – even when he is just Bob – which lines tie into which sides of the character a little bit more and really carve out, even if it’s subtle and not everyone reads it the first time they watch, which aspects of the character those lines are connecting to.
In a previous interview you mentioned that you considered Man-Thing as a potential member for Thunderbolts*. What about any of the original team members from the comics? Did you ever consider going back for a really deep dive into Helmut Zemo’s Thunderbolts as an example?
[Laughs]. Just to be clear, the Man-Thing idea was early, early pitch and I was like, “Wouldn’t it be fun if?” and then no, it never got close to coming true. In the beginning when I was pitching on this, Sentry was not a part of the story, but by the time I was hired on the film, there was a draft that had him in it, and that was so clearly more resonant and more interesting that we never really considered changing the team after that. I think one thing that Marvel has always been so good at is not just following the comics but presenting its own version of what those comics were about.
Obviously, that first run of the Thunderbolts, it’s an incredible story. I don’t know that that would be so achievable in a movie context. You know what I mean? To have those masks on or what you could set up… I think what Kevin [Feige’s] so smart about is that our movie, by the time you get to the end of it, I think people will see that, in its own subtle way, it actually honors that and references that in a very different context, but kind of ends in the place that people are referring to.
In terms of other characters, let’s say the anti-heroes or villains who are deceased in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, is there anybody that if they were still alive in continuity you would love to bring them back and have them as part of Thunderbolts*?
I mean, this was the team, and I love these actors so much. I never really thought about trying to replace anyone or get anyone else on it. I think more than anything it’s its own kind of story in a way – and the asterisk is there for a reason. And I think these characters, it’s hard for me now having built this to imagine anyone else to really tell this story with.
For the average viewer, they might look at Thunderbolts* as Marvel’s version of the Suicide Squad or even The Expendables. Having directed and overseen the movie, how do you feel this film differs from something such as Suicide Squad or even The Expendables?
Well, that was what was so smart about Eric Pearson’s script, and what Brian Chapek had developed with him, was that it had this twist on that. From the beginning, Valentina Allegra de Fontaine is sending them to kill each other, not to be some kind of rogue team to do black ops with. So, right from the get-go, I felt like that distinguished it, and then it felt like we could make our mark by going into a much more internal character place, make it more about internal struggles than external ones, and find some level of difference there.
I also think that for me – relative to – James [Gunn] did such incredible work with Guardians of the Galaxy and The Suicide Squad, that it felt like those were really this incredible group of misfits and that this group felt more like people who might’ve thought they were the hero, or they were the lead – people like John Walker – and then things went quite awry. So, it’s more about just all of us. Anyone who’s kind of thought that they were destined for something bigger then had it not work out and what do you do from there? Where do you go, and how do you find your way out of that place?
This interview was edited for clarity.
Directed by Jake Schreier and starring Florence Pugh and Sebastian Stan, Thunderbolts* blasts its way into theaters on May 2.
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