Marvel’s ‘Thunderbolts’ Finds its Director

Marvel’s Thunderbolts is a go!

According to Deadline, Marvel Studios has found the director for the new film in Jake Schreier. Eric Pearson (Black Widow) is writing the script with Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige producing.

Best known for his work on Kanye West and Kendrick Lamar music videos, Schreier broke into directing features and television with his 2013 Sundance film Robot & Frank and 2015’s Paper Towns. He also worked on A24/Netflix’s Beef as well as a few episodes of FX’s Dave.

If you’re not aware of who the Thunderbolts are — think Marvel’s version of the DC’s Suicide Squad. They’re a team of villains or antagonists who go on missions for the government. If you think about all the films and series, there are a lot of characters that could join this team. Baron Zemo (Daniel Brühl) is one of the original members. In fact, in the comics, he was the creator of this new “superhero” team so that he could gain public favor and access to S.H.I.E.L.D. operations. Of course, the comics evolved into these former supervillains becoming antiheroes.

It’s been suggested that Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) could be the leader since she found U.S. Agent (Wyatt Russell) and has worked with Yelena (Florence Pugh) before. There is also Bill Foster (Laurence Fishburne) from Ant-Man and the Wasp as a potential leader, since he was last seen with Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen).

One character who will likely not be involved is the team’s namesake — General Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross. The actor, William Hurt, who has portrayed the character since 2008’s The Incredible Hulk, passed away in May.