'Black Widow' writer Eric Pearson is penning the script.
BY AARON COUCH
Marvel Studios’ villains are getting a jolt, with the super villain team the Thunderbolts getting their own film.
Filmmaker Jake Schreier, who has directed films such as Robot & Frank and episodes of TV series such as Jim Carrey’s Kidding, Dave and Minx, has landed the job to direct Thunderbolts, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed. Marvel veteran Eric Pearson is penning the script, after working with the studio on Black Widow and Thor: Ragnarok. Deadline first reported the news.
In the comics, the Thunderbolts are a team of supervillains who debuted in The Incredible Hulk No. 449, and created by artist Mark Bagley and writer Kurt Busiek. They are akin to DC’s Suicide Squad as that in some versions the team works under government supervision.
Speculation that Marvel could set up the Thunderbolts dates back to 2019, when studio boss Kevin Feige announced at San Diego Comic-Con that Daniel Bruhl would return as the villain Zemo for Disney+’s Falcon and the Winter Soldier. In the comics, Zemo was the founding member of the team, which has led by figures such as Hawkeye as well.
Marvel has introduced a number of other villains who could make up the roster, though no stars are said to be attached to Thunderbolts. Villains who feel like a fit for the big screen Thunderbolts include Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko), U.S. Agent (Wyatt Russell), Yelena Bolova (Florence Pugh) and Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), who in both Falcon and the Winter Soldier and Black Widow pulls the strings behind the scenes in a way suggesting she could oversee a team of villains.
The news comes as Marvel’s publishing arm prepares to debut a new Thunderbolts comic in August from writer
Jim Zub and artist Sean Izaakse. Marvel will release Thor: Love and Thunder in theaters next month and just launched Ms. Marvel on Disney+. The studio has a full slate over the next few years, and will debut more at D23 in September, Disney confirmed Thursday.
Schreier, who is repped by CAA, Grandview and Sloane Offer, recently filmed the Netflix and A24 series Beef, which stars Ali Wong and Steven Yeun. Pearson’s credits also include Godzilla vs. Kong and TV’s Agent Carter. He is repped by ICM