Spoiler alert: This story deals with the major developments of the plot, including the end, of the “Thunderbolts *” of Marvel Studios, currently playing in theaters.
The culminating battle in “Thunderbolts *” is unlike any other Marvel Studios film in its 17 -year story. Throughout the film, each time the members of the ad hoc anti-hero holder team come into physical contact with Bob Reynolds (Lewis Pullman), they suddenly find themselves aspired inside the memory of one of their greatest shame. For Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), it was when she attracted her friend to her death like her first test for the red room. For John Walker (Wyatt Russell), he pulls his wife and neglects his son who cries after his shame during the events of “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” of 2021. For Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), he witnesses the murder of his father as a young girl.
In the final act of the film, the Thunderbolts discover that these memories are caused by the transformation of Bob into the all-powerful superhero sentryman and her self-nulleux alter ego, the void, which begins to survive New York and all its residents in total darkness. After Yelena voluntarily in this darkness, she made her way through her darkest memories to find Bob trapped in a shame room linked to her abusive childhood. The rest of the Thunderbolts – including Bucky (Sebastian Stan), Ghost (Hannah John -Kamen) and Alexei (David Harbor) – join Yelena inside the void to help Bob fight against all his shame of shame and, hopefully, of the emptiness entirely.
Finally, they arrive at the memory of Bob of the Malaysian scientific laboratory where he volunteered for scientific experimentation to transform him into superheroes – the same laboratory that Yelena destroys at the start of the film. Bob attacks the void, which makes him stronger; It is only when Yelena and the Thunderbolts kiss Bob and let him know that he is not alone that he is able to escape the void and return to New York to normal.
All this sequence is shot by director Jake Schreier (“Paper Towns”, “Beef”) and the director of photography Andrew Droz Palermo (“The Green Knight”, “Moon Knight”) with a worksosis in hand and by hand which evokes “being John Malovich” and “Eternal Sunnshine” and Indie Spayy.
“Kevin (Feige) said:” Do it different-Hare if you can “”, explains Schreier about the chief of Marvel Studios. “We thought it would be fun to do a practical interpretation of what would be the respect of a loop of thought or a shame room.”
Schreier spoke with Variety About the conception of shame rooms – including those that have not made the film – as well as his personal inspiration for the character of Bob and how much he was involved in the post -writer that sets up the role of the team in “Avengers: Doomsday” of 2026.
Sebastian Stan and director Jake Schreier on the set of “Thunderbolts *”.
Chuck Zlotnick / Marvel Studios
When did you shot the final of the final credit?
It was shot maybe four weeks ago, and I did not manage it. It is the Russos on the set of “Avengers: Doomsday”. I must be there, which was very fun, to watch your friends go on this largest scale.
Did you feel that Sam Wilson was going to continue them for using the name “Avengers”?
I could see the drafts, that’s for sure. We all worked on the stage just to make sure it was honest to know where our characters were. But also, you give them to this brand new world and to this new scope, and you want them to work this way. It was fun to see them directed in another context and at a different level of scope from that which we had treated it.
Which one came first, having a sentry / emptiness in your film, or wanting to explore themes of solitude and depression in a Marvel film?
Sentry / The void was in it. (Screenwriter) Eric Pearson and (executive producer) Brian Chapek had found it together. It’s just who is this character, and what (comic book writer) Paul Jenkins did it by presenting it – and we talked to him – it was always a parable for mental health. This looked like such an interesting opportunity to offer some of the ideas we had explored in the “beef” and see if they could work on an even larger scale.
A large part of the discourse on how things are in the world today revolve around a generation of young men who are desperately lost and alone and depressed. How much was in your mind while you explored these themes of this film?
Once it has become the role of Lewis, and we started working together and talking about it, and you would just see these moments that seemed resonant in this way. It was not really an intention to talk to that. But I think, as, as we did, it was like, oh, there is a resonance there. We never wanted to make conferences or to fold in some way, but to make it honest. I mean, for me, this character was always based on one of my friends who went through many of these things, and would have these very high highs, and would always bring this very self -destructive quality below. He really needed to learn to exist in the midst of this and agree to be himself.
I mean, the last thing I would like to do is to ensure that anyone feels gave conferences, or making a manifest message more than hoping that all those who come to the film feel understood at a certain level. These are really the connections you can find, this idea that, in bad hands, someone who crosses these things can be turned as Val (in Bob) and has led a darker path – compared, if you establish a real connection with someone, there is a more solid way.
What was the process of conception of shame rooms and what would be inside them?
It was something we really deepen. At first, it was like, well, we cannot beat this guy outside, obviously, so there must be an internal resolution. Brian Chapek had the idea of entering the void. And since Kevin (Feige) said: “Go there and make him different-do it through the camera if you can” (we thought) that it would be fun to do a practical interpretation of what would be stuck in a loop of thought or a shame room. It is really when (creator of beef) Sonny (Lee) entered and made several sketches, and working with Grace Yun, our production designer on “Beef” and that, that we have entered the details of what these pieces would be. (Scriptwriter) Joanna (Calo) resumed this and prevented her even more from returning to this initial room in which we find Yelena at the start of the film, and to make this call from the idea that the greatest shame of all thought that you could be bigger than you yourself with whom you are without heroism.
We see Bob, Elena, Walker and Val’s Shame Rooms. Have you explored what Bucky or Ava would look like or Alexei the rooms of shame?
I was very sad not to see in particular the shame of Alexei. Yeah, we tried. There was a time when the final became an escape through all their shame rooms, and I think it would have been very fun. But something Joanna really talked about must have had a big bad time before leaving the void. And if that will lead to the heart of the void, then it was more important to make a trip through the rooms of Bob’s shame – as much as I am very sad not to have had to enter the past of all the characters.
How much did you think about what it would be like?
We went far enough. We have complete animal sequences and storyboard of all kinds of different versions from the end of this film.
Can you tell me a bit what it would have been?
We had Alexei in the gulag, I think, after being thrown in there. I believe that Ghost was on his time in the orphanage, and to be this girl that no one wanted to be there – to be able to be invisible and see the way you are perceived and no one wanting to associate with you was very sad. We had a lot of different Bucky. We always wanted to do something a little less than the expected idea. There are very obvious things for Bucky, but I think at some point, Joanna had written something around a shameful moment in the Boy Scout camp. But I don’t know it would have really been the right way for that. It is the right thing with work with these actors – they are such invested and attentive tutors of their characters and their arcs that they will make you know that something seems false or not just for them.
How did you work the actors to sort what their rooms of shame mean for them and how they understand what they see?
Something when you make practical effects, through the camera – like, there are just head tower transitions and match cuts – I think the actors are a bit like: “Are you sure, guy? Is that?” And it’s like: “No, I think it will work.” I love what Joanna wrote for Walker. He speaks at this terrible moment of “Falcon and Winter Soldier” – not by returning at this time, but more by going to what this kind of moments gives us. The idea of seeing a character like this in this surprisingly small and very relatable domestic situation could look like an even better emotion in the emotion of what it can do to you.
For a long time, this film was not supposed to be released in early May. What was your reaction when you realized that this film is now launching the summer season, and that it is a blockbuster on shame, depression and solitude?
(Laughter) Look, I’m just here to make the film. Kevin had said from the start: “Different appointment”, so I never felt like I was fleeing. I said from the start: “I don’t want it to be the weird.” We made this film with the collaboration and support of everyone in the studio that made all these other so great films. The hope was that you arrived at the end of this and that it has all the action, all the explosions and all the humor you expect from a Marvel summer film. And then, yes, the other side goes in a more internal place, but when you arrive at this post-key sequence, even if you got there on a very different path from what you expected, it is up to the inheritance of these films. I hope we managed to do so.
This interview was published and condensed.
