Another day, another new Marvel rumor and according to frequent scooper Daniel Richtman it’s a doozy. Richtman shared on his Patreon (H/T MCUCosmic), that a fan-favorite Marvel group will be making their debut in the upcoming The Falcon and the Winter Soldier Disney+ series, none other than The Thunderbolts! It’s not too much of a stretch to imagine this being true since Helmut Zemo (Daniel Brรผhl) will return for the TV series, having previously been the leader for the team in the pages of Marvel comics. Even the Winter Soldier lead the most recent version of the team, so there’s plenty of association with the group set to appear in the TV series already.
In the Marvel Comics, the Thunderbolts are a team of supervillains-turned-heroes. Baron Zemo, a longtime enemy of Captain America and the Avengers, reunited the villain group Masters of Evil when Earth’s mightiest heroes appeared to perish against new threat Onslaught. The costumed villains then posed as a new generation of crime-fighters in the absence of the real superheroes, with some ultimately emerging as reformed do-gooders when masquerading as heroes for their own gain.
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It was previously reported that the group was in “very early development” at Marvel Studios, whether that report was regarding a separate project that will blossom from the upcoming streaming series remains to be seen. Another recent report hinted at a villain from “way, way back” that was returning for the series, which could lend credence to these Thunderbolts rumors as well.
The Falcon and The Winter Soldier will naturally see the return of Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan as their titular characters along with the return of Emily VanCamp as SHIELD agent Sharon Carter. The series will see the debut of John Walker/US Agent, as played by Wyatt Russell.
“We’re obviously going to learn where Sharon’s been all this time,” VanCamp explained last fall. “She was sort of on the run. I’d like to know where Sharon’s been. Ok, hiding out.”
The series also sounds like one that will be full of surprises for fans of the MCU, according to Stan who said the series is going to be “so cool and kind of crazy.”
“It’s going to be so cool and kind of crazy. All I can say is it’s just new and different from what you’ve seen so far,” Stan said at an appearance at Fandemic last year. “I mean, it will be totally in line with everything that has happened and what we’ve seen and so on, but these characters are getting such additional mileage in terms of learning about who they are now, what they feel, what they’re thinking, and there’s a lot of action, comedy, you know there’s going to be comedy. I feel like you’re going to be happy. I think you’re going to be very happy. And there’s some crazy stuff, like stuff you don’t see coming from anywhere.”
The Falcon and The Winter Soldier is scheduled to premiere later this year.