Yelena Belova
Yelena Belova
Movie · Phase 5
Thunderbolts*
2025 · 127 min
Yelena is doing wet work for Valentina Allegra de Fontaine and cannot feel anything about it. Facing impeachment for an illegal super-soldier programme, Valentina sends five of her deniable assets…
The Multiverse SagaDisney+88%Released
The story
Yelena is doing wet work for Valentina Allegra de Fontaine and cannot feel anything about it. Facing impeachment for an illegal super-soldier programme, Valentina sends five of her deniable assets into the same vault to kill each other and burn the evidence, and they survive by accident.
The sixth person in the vault is Bob, a man with no memory and the results of the OXE experiment inside him, and when his depression wins he becomes the Void and swallows New York in shadow. The film's climax is not a fight — it is several damaged people walking into someone else's worst memories and refusing to leave.
Key facts
- Release date
- 2 May 2025
- Status
- Released
- Phase
- Phase 5
- Saga
- The Multiverse Saga
- Runtime
- 127 min
- Certificate
- PG-13
- Director
- Jake Schreier
- Writers
- Eric Pearson, Joanna Calo
- Streaming
- Disney+
- Timeline placement
- 2027 — shortly after Captain America: Brave New World
Cast
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Florence Pugh | Yelena Belova |
| Sebastian Stan | Bucky Barnes |
| Lewis Pullman | Bob Reynolds / Sentry |
| Julia Louis-Dreyfus | Valentina Allegra de Fontaine |
| David Harbour | Alexei Shostakov / Red Guardian |
| Wyatt Russell | John Walker / US Agent |
| Hannah John-Kamen | Ava Starr / Ghost |
Characters
Winter Soldier
James Buchanan Barnes
Red Guardian
Alexei Shostakov
U.S. Agent
John F. Walker
Ghost
Ava Starr in the MCU; unrevealed in the comics
Taskmaster
Anthony Masters
Easter eggs
- The asterisk in the title pays off in the closing titles, where Valentina rebrands the team as the New Avengers over their objections.
- The post-credits scene, set fourteen months later, shows the Fantastic Four's ship entering the team's airspace with a '4' on the hull.
- Bob's Sentry and the Void come from Paul Jenkins and Jae Lee's 2000 Sentry series, including the golden costume and the depression allegory.
- Ghost's phasing and her Ant-Man and the Wasp origin are explicitly referenced, as is her post-treatment stability.
- Taskmaster is killed within minutes of appearing, a decision Marvel took heavy fan criticism for.
- John Walker's US Agent costume and his grief over Lemar Hoskins carry straight over from The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.
- Alexei's limousine business and his obsessive Red Guardian scrapbook pay off his arc from Black Widow.
- Avengers Tower has been sold to Valentina and rebranded the Watchtower, with the 'A' being replaced on screen.
Trivia
- Jake Schreier was hired for Marvel's X-Men film on the strength of this production before the film even opened.
- Florence Pugh performed the opening CN Tower jump herself on a stunt rig, with the plate shot from the real tower.
- Its 88% Rotten Tomatoes score is the highest of any Phase 5 film.
- Despite the reviews it lost money, grossing $382 million against a $180 million budget plus marketing.
- Son Lux, who scored Everything Everywhere All at Once, provided the score, giving it the most distinctive sound design in the MCU.
- Lewis Pullman replaced Steven Yeun as Bob after the 2023 strikes created scheduling conflicts.
- The Void sequences were achieved largely with practical blackout lighting and in-camera shadow work rather than full CG.
Box office
- Budget
- $180 million
- Worldwide
- $382.4 million
- Domestic
- $190.3 million
Reviews
Critics
88%
Anchored by Florence Pugh's compelling performance and a surprising streak of melancholy, Thunderbolts* is a scrappy, character-first entry that reminds you what the MCU can do.
The MarvelGossips verdict
The best Marvel film since Endgame and the clearest proof that the audience has stopped showing up regardless. Pugh carries a genuinely sad film about people who have run out of reasons, and Lewis Pullman's Bob is the most sympathetic figure in the franchise. The New Avengers rebrand is a cheap laugh that undercuts the ending it follows.
Related titles
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Frequently asked
What does the asterisk in Thunderbolts* mean?
It is a marketing tease that pays off in the end titles: Valentina rebrands the team as the New Avengers, so the film's own title is footnoted as inaccurate.
Who is the Sentry?
Bob Reynolds, the sole survivor of Valentina's OXE super-soldier programme, with power comparable to a million exploding suns and a shadow self called the Void. The character is taken from Paul Jenkins' 2000 comic, depression allegory intact.
Did Thunderbolts* flop?
Commercially, yes. It earned Marvel's best reviews in years at 88% on Rotten Tomatoes and still finished at $382 million worldwide against a $180 million budget, meaning a substantial loss after marketing.
Does it set up the Fantastic Four?
Directly. The post-credits scene jumps fourteen months forward to the New Avengers detecting a ship marked with a 4 entering Earth's orbit, bridging into The Fantastic Four: First Steps and Avengers: Doomsday.