Marvel Already Has the Perfect New Thunderbolts Replacements

Now that the New Avengers have been introduced in Thunderbolts*, the Marvel Cinematic Universe needs a new roster for its next Thunderbolts team, and we’ve already met the perfect candidates. The Thunderbolts team was an exciting addition to the MCU in Phase 5, bringing back a number of reformed villains and antiheroes and offering them much-needed redemption. Marvel Studios brought together Yelena Belova, Alexei Shostakov’s Red Guardian, Bucky Barnes’ Winter Soldier, Ava Starr’s Ghost, and John Walker’s US Agent as the MCU’s first Thunderbolts line-up, but the team now needs some new faces.

The titular team only jokingly took on the Thunderbolts name in the MCU’s Phase 5, inspired by Yelena Belova’s childhood soccer team, the West Chesapeake Valley Thunderbolts. This roster is now better-known as the New Avengers following Valentina’s (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) unexpected announcement, which means the Thunderbolts have been removed from the MCU just as quickly as they debuted. In their place, Marvel could establish other antiheroes and villains as a new Thunderbolts team, and the perfect sophomore line-up has already been introduced.

The MCU Already Has the Perfect Second Thunderbolts Team

While the first team of Thunderbolts comprised individuals who had fallen under the employment of Valentina Allegra de Fontaine and the secretive OXE Group, the second could be formed from the residents of the MCU’s Raft. First seen in 2016’s Captain America: Civil War, this maximum security prison is situated in the middle of the ocean and is designed to house some of the most unpredictable and dangerous superpowered individuals in the MCU. Currently, there are five known residents of the Raft with various abilities, and they may be perfectly primed to become Thunderbolts.

While the Raft was used to house fugitive members of the Avengers in Civil War, the prison has since become home to actual villains from the MCU’s history. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier ended with members of Wakanda’s Dora Milaje taking Baron Helmut Zemo (Daniel Brühl) to the Raft, though he was shown to still have some influence on the outside world, as he was able to orchestrate the defeat of escaping Flag Smashers. Zemo was able to manipulate his way to dividing the Avengers in Civil War, proving himself more sinister and dangerous than many superpowered supervillains.

Read Next

Every Way That Captain America: Brave New World Has Changed the MCU

In 2025’s Captain America: Brave New World, Zemo was joined in the Raft by Samuel Sterns’ Leader (Tim Blake Nelson) and Thaddeus Ross’ Red Hulk (Harrison Ford). The Leader’s exposure to Bruce Banner’s blood enhanced his intellect massively, giving him the ability to see into possible futures by analyzing probabilities. He manipulated world events behind the scenes to allow Ross to become President of the United States, but also fed him gamma pills that eventually transformed him into the Red Hulk, becoming the very thing he had always hated.

The integration of Netflix’s Defenders Saga into the MCU’s official timeline means that there are two more villains also housed in the Raft. Willis Stryker’s Diamondback (Erik LaRay Harvey) from Luke Cage and Trish Walker’s Hellcat (Rachael Taylor) from Jessica Jones were both escorted to the Raft after battling their series’ titular heroes. Diamondback, Hellcat, Red Hulk, the Leader, and Baron Zemo could come together to form a very interesting new Thunderbolts team, which has the potential to be even better than the first.

How The New Thunderbolts Team Would Be Better Than the First

When the Thunderbolts were first introduced to Marvel Comics in 1997’s The Incredible Hulk #449, they were actually Zemo’s Masters of Evil masquerading as heroes in the Avengers’ absence. Their activities as false heroes actually convinced most of them to turn to a life of heroism, but various Thunderbolts teams over the years have been composed of bona fide villains. Bringing together Zemo, Red Hulk, the Leader, Hellcat, and Diamondback in the MCU would create a more comic-accurate Thunderbolts team in this regard.

Read Next

2 MCU Stars Didn’t Appear in Thunderbolts* Even Though They Would’ve Been Perfect

This new possible line-up would also give the Thunderbolts team more varied powers. When Thunderbolts*’ cast was first revealed back in 2022, there was some criticism as the team’s members have very similar power-sets – other than Ava Starr’s Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), whose phasing ability is unique. Bringing together a master manipulator, a Hulk-like villain, a deformed villain with a genius-level intellect, an individual with cat-like abilities, and a Luke Cage villain in an armored costume would give this new team more variety and make them a much more unlikely but interesting team.

Forming a Thunderbolts team from residents of the Raft would bring them much closer in style to DC’s Suicide Squad. However, this could also be the most exciting choice for the team going forward, now that the first Thunderbolts team has become the New Avengers. It would be great to see a Thunderbolts* sequel hit theaters after Avengers: Secret Wars, and this line-up would pay off many unanswered questions and unexplained mysteries from the MCU’s past.

What do you think? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!