Actress Florence Pugh has offered a glimpse of her new combat suit and sleek blue eye-liner look for Marvel Studios’ upcoming film Thunderbolts in a new behind-the-scenes video from the sets of the Jake Schreier-directed movie, slated to release in theatres globally on May 2, 2025.
Thunderbolts, which will mark Pugh’s return as the assassin Yelena Belova, is currently under production at a studio in Atlanta. Pugh’s Yelena first appeared in the 2021 film Black Widow alongside Scarlett Johansson, who played the titular character. She then reprised her role in the Disney+ series Hawkeye.
“Hey guys, how are you doing? I know I’ve dropped off for a little bit, but that’s partially because I was whisked off to Atlanta to shoot a movie that I’m not really supposed to talk about,” the Dune actress said in the video.
“But I can show you things, sneakily, as long as you don’t tell anyone…I can show you a sneak peek of the set. They’re shooting. I’ll be quiet now,” she added.
Wearing a blue eye-liner, Pugh can be seen sporting a combat suit which is different from her black catsuit in the previous movies. She entered the set while scenes were in the process of shooting and provided a glimpse of some structures under construction.
Pugh also ran into Thunderbolts director Jake Schreier, known for helming the 2015 film Paper Towns and 2012’s Robot and Frank. Schreier has also directed several episodes of the Emmy-winning Netflix series Beef, the HBO Max comedy drama series Minx and the Showtime comedy series Shameless.
“I don’t even think you’re supposed to be doing this,” Schreier jokingly tells Pugh, whose camera pans to a monitor showing Yelena pointing a gun at her adversary. “Someone is going to come rugby tackle me,” Pugh playfully says.
Thunderbolts is reportedly centred on “villains and antiheroes going on a mission that was supposed to end with their death”. Full details of the plot have been kept under wraps.
The Thunderbolts is a Marvel Comics series that debuted in 1997. The initial premise of the series revolves around a group of superheroes seemingly emerging to fill the void left by the Avengers, who were believed to be dead after a massive battle. However, as the series progresses, it is revealed that the Thunderbolts are actually a team of villains in disguise, led by Baron Zemo, a classic Captain America villain.
On September 11, 2022, Schreier had revealed the cast of Thunderbolts in an Instagram post shared after Disney’s D23 Expo. “Bunch of misfits at D23 for Thunderbolts. @officialjld @dkharbour @hannahjohnkamen @imsebastianstan (and Wyatt doesn’t do Instagram),” he wrote in the caption of the picture featuring Julia Louis-Dreyfus, David Harbour, Hannah John-Kamen, Sebastian Stan and Wyatt Russell.
Sebastian Stan will reprise his role as Bucky Barnes aka Winter Soldier in the film. David Harbour will star as Red Guardian, Harrison Ford as the antagonist Thaddeus 'Thunderbolt' Ross, Hannah John-Kamen as Ghost, Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, Wyatt Russell as John Walker and Olga Kurylenko as Taskmaster. Top Gun: Maverick star Lewis Pullman is going to debut as The Sentry in the new MCU movie.
Thunderbolts, the last film of MCU’s Phase Five, is written by Beef writer Lee Sung Jin.
