Disney’s CEO Didn’t Have a Positive Update About Thunderbolts’ Release Date

Marvel Cinematic Universe MCU is becoming insular and exclusive with superheroes hero heroes brands like Captain America, Black Widow, Marvels, needs new brands and characters Thunderbolts

Marvel is looking to get its footing back with the success of Echo and the hype around both Deadpool 3 and Daredevil: Born Again, but it looks like it may have hit another roadblock as the upcoming Thunderbolts may not be hitting its summer 2025 release date.

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The news comes from Bob Iger’s recent shareholder meeting, where the Disney CEO touted the studio’s upcoming release slate for 2025 but failed to mention Thunderbolts at all. The CEO dropped names like Captain America: Brave New World, Fantastic Four, Elio, Zootopia 2, and Avatar 3 while trying to reassure shareholders that Disney’s future is still bright despite a very rough 2023. Now, Thunderbolts could have just slipped his mind, but given how scripted these things are and how important anything Marvel is to Disney, that’s not likely.

Related: Disney Buys Stake in Fortnite Maker Epic Games

For those who pay attention to the industry, it should not be a huge surprise that the film may not hit its release window. Filming is still slated to start in spring, but the movie, which features a bevy of big-name stars playing a collection of Marvel anti-heroes, has had numerous scheduling issues thanks to the SAG-AFTRA strikes. That led to Ayo Edebiri being replaced by Geraldine Viswanathan and Steven Yeun dropping out of the film.

Thunderbolts is basically Marvel’s take on The Suicide Squad, and the team-up has been building for a while now, with Julia Louis-Dreyfus’s Valentina Allegra de Fontaine finally pulling together the group she’s been clamoring for during her plethora of cameos throughout recent MCU fare. Aside from the aforementioned recast characters, that team will include Wyatt Russell as John Walker, Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes, Florence Pugh as Yelena Belova, David Harbour as Alexei Shostakov/Red Guardian, Olga Kurylenko as Antonia Dreykov/Taskmaster, and Hannah John-Kamen as Ava Starr/Ghost.


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Matthew Razak
Matthew Razak is a News Writer and film aficionado at Escapist. He has been writing for Escapist for nearly five years and has nearly 20 years of experience reviewing and talking about movies, TV shows, and video games for both print and online outlets. He has a degree in Film from Vassar College and a degree in gaming from growing up in the '80s and '90s. He runs the website Flixist.com and has written for The Washington Post, Destructoid, MTV, and more. He will gladly talk your ear off about horror, Marvel, Stallone, James Bond movies, Doctor Who, Zelda, and Star Trek.