Thunderbolts Star David Harbour Teases Yelena and Red Guardian's Complex Bond in the MCU

Marvel's Thunderbolts will bring together an unlikely (and very odd) group of Marvel Cinematic Universe characters, for a top-secret mission that could end up changing the entire balance of power in the MCU. However, while MCU fans want to know how Thunderbolts will fit into the larger franchise story, there's also just as much interest in what the journey to get there will be like. Thunderbolts will hinge on the chemistry of its large ensemble cast and two of those characters – Florence Pugh's Yelena Belova and David Harbour's Red Guardian – will actually be trying to pick up some chemistry they established in a previous film (Black Widow). 

The Black Widow (2021) movie established how Red Guardian (Alexei Shostakov) and Yelena Belova were part of a surrogate family/spy cell with Natasha Romanoff before her days as Black Widow. Yelena was particularly invested in the cover story of being a family – and was especially devastated when that cover ended and her "dad" Alexei turned her over to the nefarious General Dreykov and his Black Widow program. 

The tone of Black Widow never got dark enough to really dig into the fact that Alexei betrayed his "daughters" from a dramatic angle; the film opted for a few comedic beats and teenage-daughter-style sarcasm to fill in those emotional beats. Even though Thunderbolts will have a lot of banter and humor baked in, dramatic issues will have to be addressed if Red Guardian and Yelena are back in a family/team setting together again.

"So they have a lot of unexplored history," David Harbour said to Screen Rant. "There are a lot of details that the director, Jake, has gone into the great care of what their life was like in the Midwest when they were doing all that spy stuff. And then, a lot of that comes up in really fun, interesting, beautiful ways, which, like in the Black Widow movie came up with that song, "American Pie". And there's just a lot of complexity between me and Florence's character, which I love."

Harbour not only confirmed that Alexei and Yelena's history will be a focus of their character arcs – he also teased a thematic idea that could arguably apply to all of Thunderbolts: 

"They're... people that... she can't stand, but she needs... because she's incomplete in a certain way that he may be able to help her with. I think that's always so beautiful. Because I feel like our relationships are always so... Sometimes we don't get to choose the people that complete us. The people that we really need. I think that they exemplify that in their own way. It will be fun to bring that to life in the movie."

Add in the fact that Black Widow villain Taskmaster is also part of the team, and the potential for delicious awkwardness and drama only goes up! 

Thunderbolts has a release date of July 25, 2025.