Sebastian Stan's Comments On The MCU's Thunderbolts Sure Sound Ominous
The Marvel Cinematic Universe is packed with fascinating heroes and villains, but one of the most interesting character arcs belongs to Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan). The plucky soldier started his journey as Steve Rogers' (Chris Evans) best friend in the 1940s before joining him on the battlefield as part of the Howling Commandos after Steve's supersoldier serum-induced transformation. But the duo were split up by the end of "Captain America: The First Avenger" when Bucky falls from a Hydra train in the snowy wilderness — seemingly to his doom.
Obviously, he would later return as a brainwashed villain in "Captain America: The Winter Soldier," surviving after being experimented on by Hydra. Since then, Bucky's time in the MCU has been about reclaiming his own identity and discovering who he is outside of Hydra's programming. Stan recently appeared opposite Anthony Mackie's Sam Wilson in "The Falcon and The Winter Soldier" on Disney+, which dives further into Bucky's psyche and how he's haunted by his time as an assassin.
Stan previously told Indiewire that he's been told how much his role resonates with survivors of trauma, explaining, "I have a lot of fans that reach out, writing about trauma and telling me about certain situations that they're going through and feeling empowered. I feel like that might be the greatest gift, to be honest."
But Bucky's journey is far from over because he'll next be seen in the "Thunderbolts" movie alongside a motley crew of morally ambiguous soldiers and spies assembled by Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus). Kevin Feige confirmed that they're the Avengers' replacements in the MCU, but Sebastian Stan's recent comments about the team sound a lot more ominous.
It'll answer who's a real villain
Many Marvel fans will already know that in the comics, the Thunderbolts were actually created by Baron Zemo as a way of exploiting the apparent death of the Avengers after 1996's "Onslaught" event (via Marvel Database). This new team were actually the Masters of Evil in disguise, although many members eventually decided to try their hand at genuine heroism.
The team's live-action lineup is a little different, though, as they're assembled by Valentina Allegra de Fontaine rather than Helmut Zemo (Daniel Bruhl). The team is made up of Bucky Barnes, Yelena Belova, (Florence Pugh), Red Guardian (David Harbour), Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), U.S. Agent (Wyatt Russell), and Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko). But when speaking to ExtraTV, Stan teased that the film itself will answer who on the team is a true villain, compared to the anti-heroes who aren't afraid to push boundaries.
He explained, "Well again, maybe that's what the movie is going to answer, right? It's always interesting when you as an audience member have to maybe decide whether we are villains or heroes." The star pointed out that this is what makes the film so unique, adding, "But I think that's what compelling about the movie: it's very unconventional like that. So it starts out a little bit like 'Who's really the protagonist or antagonist, I guess."
Clearly, this morally ambiguous squad has a few apples in its ranks.