Summary

Marvel Studios’ Thunderbolts* promises emotional and narrative depth with returning stars like Florence Pugh and Sebastian Stan.

Director Jake Schreier discusses with Collider’s Perri Nemiroff how he aimed to blend intimacy and scale while pushing the boundaries of the MCU with Thunderbolts*.

Schreier also discusses how Thunderbolts* balances franchise continuity with fresh storytelling and practical effects to create a unique cinematic experience.

Marvel Studios’ Thunderbolts* brings together some of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s most complex characters for a team-up that promises to push emotional and narrative boundaries while packing a punch. With stars like Florence Pugh, Sebastian Stan, David Harbour, and Wyatt Russell returning to reprise their roles, Thunderbolts* isn’t just a continuation of their stories — it’s a chance to see the already intricate characters evolve in more unexpected ways.
Director Jake Schreier has quietly built a reputation for delivering visually inventive and emotionally grounded storytelling. Known for his work on projects like Paper Towns and the acclaimed Netflix series Beef, Shreier has also directed emotionally impactful episodes of series like Star Wars: Skeleton Crew, Brand New Cherry Flavor, and more. Now, Schreier is bringing his signature blend of intimacy and scale to Thunderbolts*, as well as introducing a few new key players, including Lewis Pullman and Geraldine Viswanathan.
In a conversation with Collider’s Perri Nemiroff, Schreier dives deep into the creative philosophy behind Thunderbolts*, from balancing franchise continuity with fresh storytelling to designing jaw-dropping practical effects. He reveals how he and the team approached building new arcs for familiar characters, how a commitment to in-camera effects enhanced the film’s surreal moments, and why simplicity often leads to the most powerful visual results. It’s a revealing look at how Thunderbolts* aims to push the boundaries of what an MCU film can be.
Is Bucky Barnes the Most Emotionally Well-Adjusted of the ‘Thunderbolts*’?

“Maybe, in fact, the right home for him all along has been with a team that you never would expect.”

PERRI NEMIROFF: I wanted to make sure to start with this particular question, because I think it’s something that more franchise films need to do, and Thunderbolts* does this exceptionally well. It’s heavily connected to what happened in the past and it tees up things for the future of the MCU, but it also manages to stand on its own two feet. What tip would you give to another franchise filmmaker looking to crack that code and do both?
JAKE SCHREIER: It starts with Kevin [Feige] saying, “Hey, make it work if people haven’t seen any of these things.” And I think it’s great of him to recognize that. It’s just a delicate dance with a great group of writers to try to find ways to, without it feeling heavily expositional, allude to things that people who have, like when Yelena says, “I thought it started when my sister died.” You’re defining for a new audience that she has a sister that’s died. Obviously, if you’ve watched these movies, there’s a whole wealth of emotional resonance if you know who she’s talking about and the story that she’s referring to. But I think we always look for ways to kind of drop those ideas in so you could follow along with this thing, and then also just really make it its own story to have a full arc and not feel like you’re being dropped in in the middle of an installment.
I think that’s one of the most interesting things about working in the MCU is that it’s not like a TV show, but these actors have played these characters before, and so they’re very attached to some of those moments and some of those performances that they’ve given, but in order to make a good movie, you’ve got to have a new arc. You’ve got to have a new problem, a new want, a new need, and find a new place for them to go. So, to do that in a way that still honors the characters that they’ve played before, that was really what we spent the bulk of our time trying to figure out.

Image via Marvel Studios

To follow up on that, can you give us an example of an MCU actor who is continuing their journey with Thunderbolts* and heavily leaned on a past scene of theirs to craft their performance here?
SCHREIER: I think everyone was really game to do something new, but obviously when you’re working with someone like Sebastian Stan, they’re such an incredible actor, but they’ve also been in so many of these movies, and they’re such an icon within the world, and in the world in general, that character has processed a lot of the things that our characters have yet to process. So, you have to find a way to give that character a new arc in this world, having processed that trauma and, in theory, being in a place of balance but now needing a new problem.
We thought what would be interesting is: where do you go once you have gotten through that? You could imagine Bucky thinking, “Maybe it’s time to approach this from a new angle and help people through a new path,” and trying to get into politics, and then realizing, as anyone, I think, would, how frustrating politics can be. Maybe, in fact, the right home for him all along has been with a team that you never would expect, with people who have also gone through that trauma, and that he has something particular to offer them as someone who has already gone through this. That was really fun to watch Sebastian get to play.

Related

Florence Pugh’s E-mail to Kevin Feige Ahead of ‘Thunderbolts*’ Led to an Epic 3-Way Guinness World Record

She said it would do wonders for the press tour, and here we are.

Great success in that respect. You’re also quite successful with effects in every sense. I’ll focus on practical first, because our press notes do heavily emphasize that you wanted to do as much in-camera as possible. Can you give our viewers an example of something another film might think was best achieved via visual effects, and tell us why you prioritized practical effects instead?
SCHREIER: We tried to do as much as we could. Obviously, I suppose you technically don’t need Florence [Pugh] to step off of the second-tallest building in the world, but if she wants to do that, then I would not get in her way if she’s decided she’s going to make that happen. There’s a lot of grounded stuff in this movie and a lot of grounded action. There is a whole surrealist side to the film, and I think that traditionally in this world you might lean pretty hard on visual effects to do that. To give Grace Yun, who’s done such incredible work in Hereditary and who I worked with on Beef, the sort of prompt of, “Can you build practically an entire surrealist world that has gravity shifts between every space, and every transition is practical or at least close to it in-camera, that’s just sort of augmented by effects,” I mean, that’s so fun. To watch her run with that and be some of her most beautiful work, and [cinematographer] Andrew [Droz Palermo]’s, some of his most beautiful work in lighting those scenes and designing all that. Because we’re trying to tell a human story, it just feels like the filmmaking wants to feel like it has that texture as well.
How the ‘Thunderbolts*’ Crew and ILM Designed The Void

“You’re making a big movie, and you want to make sure that it works, but we also really wanted to try to do something different with it.”

Image via Marvel Studios

I wanted to highlight one particular visual effect that I absolutely loved. It’s what happens when someone encounters the Void.
SCHREIER: Oh, I can nerd out on this.
Is that how you pictured it looking day one, or is that a visual effects design that evolved from draft one to what we see in the finished film?
SCHREIER: That was a long search, and it started with Grace’s references. It definitely came from images from Hiroshima and those kinds of shadows. It was this feeling that we want everything in the film not to feel like it’s CG, even if we have some of the best visual effects companies in the world doing a ton of work on this movie. I don’t want to give them short shrift. We did a lot. They did a lot. The way to make great effects is to marry those two things together. I think that with that effect, it’s developed with ILM. If you spend any longer than a frame and a half of animation between when they disappear and when they become a shadow, anything longer than that starts to feel like you’re getting into CG vapor territory. So, it has to be quick, but then you almost feel exposed because it seems so simple.
Then there are other things about it, where, because it doesn’t happen so often in the movie, it really functions best, like, the camera needs to be more or less in line, almost like an eclipse, with where the voiding is happening and where the shadow goes, that if you look at it from a profile perspective, it doesn’t really work because it’s such a short effect and it’s not moving towards you. So, we really had to design all of the photography, which we could in limited fashion, to work with that and make that effect work because it is so simple. We would get what they call a wedge of a bunch of different versions of how an effect could look from ILM, and they would be like, “Well, we started with one that’s really simple, all the way to the most elaborate version of the effect.” And almost always the answer was the simple one isn’t simple enough. We need a wedge that goes six in the other direction. I think there are a bit of nerves in that because you’re making a big movie, and you want to make sure that it works, but we also really wanted to try to do something different with it.
Spot-on! It’s so chilling. Thanks for breaking that down.
Thunderbolts* hits theaters on May 2.

Thunderbolts*

Release Date

May 2, 2025

Runtime

126 Minutes

Director

Jake Schreier

Writers

Eric Pearson, Joanna Calo

Franchise(s)

Marvel Cinematic Universe

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