Marvel's Thunderbolts movie gets an exciting filming update

"Ugh. I'd better get in shape."

By Dan Seddon

18 Jan 2023

Marvel Comics

Marvel movie Thunderbolts will head into production this June, according to Julia Louis-Dreyfus, who plays Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine in the MCU.

First announced during last year's D23 Expo, this Suicide Squad-esque movie will welcome back David Harbour's Red Guardian and Florence Pugh's Yelena Belova from Black Widow, Sebastian Stan's Winter Soldier, Wyatt Russell's US Agent, Hannah John-Kamen's Ghost and Olga Kurylenko's Taskmaster.

Having last appeared in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Dreyfus's returning CIA director also rubs shoulders with Harrison Ford's Thaddeus Ross here. Ross was previously played by the late William Hurt.

Speaking to Variety, Louis-Dreyfus revealed that she's ready to kick some ass after a succession of minor MCU cameos.

"I actually pitched it. I told them I really, really want to fight. We'll see if that happens. I haven't seen the script yet," she said, before remarking she'd "better get in shape" before the cameras start rolling.

With previous credits including comedy work in Veep, Seinfeld and Saturday Night Live over the years, Louis-Dreyfus added that the famed secrecy around the MCU took her by surprise.

"There's so much secrecy around it," she said. "When I first started shooting it I had to go set wearing a black cloak with a hood and keep my head down so nobody could see it was me walking onto the sound stage."

Marvel Studios

Addressing Louis-Dreyfus's character following her debut in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige shared in 2021: "Whenever we talked about Valentina, even in the writer's room, she was sort of a more acerbic, funnier, but darker Nick Fury.

"Someone who knows her secrets, who's not afraid to operate in the moral grey area, but maybe who isn't as inherently altruistic."

Thunderbolts is scheduled for release on July 26, 2024.