8 movies and shows to catch up on before Thunderbolts*

Marvel’s latest superhero team-up movies, Thunderbolts* (yes, that asterisk is deliberate) is now in cinemas, and the early buzz suggests it’s a return to form after a string of underwhelming productions.

This isn’t your superstar Avengers line-up, however, with some of the MCU’s B-tier heroes and minor villains assembling to form a rag tag team of super soldiers. With that in mind, we figure that a little extra homework will benefit you going into the film.

Don’t worry, we’re not going to make you swot up on Wikipedia entries or comic book back issues. We’re just going to suggest some of the Marvel films and TV shows that will serve to introduce you to this team of outcasts.

Watch all of these, and we guarantee you’ll be able to tell your Captain America from your US Agent, your Yelena Belova from your Natasha Romanoff, and your Red Guardian from your Winter Soldier.

And if you already consider yourself to be an MCU aficionado? Call this a light refresher...

1. Ant-Man and the Wasp

It might be one of the weaker films in the MCU, but a cursory watch of Ant-Man and the Wasp is essential if you want to understand the character of Ava Starr, aka Ghost.

Played by English actress Hannah John-Kamen, Starr is a character who can phase through solid objects, with a tragic past that connects her to the original Ant-Man. Thunderbolts* gives this slippery character a chance at further redemption after a decidedly chequered past, and this earlier film gives us an insight into what that past looked like.

2. Black Widow

Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow was sorely underserved, given her pivotal role in establishing the MCU. This belated standalone movie was very poorly timed, serving as one big flashback for a character who had already served her time on screen, and it isn’t exactly a barnstormer in its own right.

However, it does introduce us to three of the characters in Thunderbolts* – Florence Pugh’s Yelena Belova (Black Widow’s sister), David Harbour’s Red Guardian (their adoptive super soldier father figure), and Olga Kurylenko’s Taskmaster (an antagonist-turned-ally with the ability to mimic skills).

3. Avengers: Endgame

If Black Widow is the origin story of Yelena Belova, then Avengers: Endgame shows us the traumatic event that sets the adult spy on her path of vengeance and (presumably) some form of redemption in Thunderbolts*. This is the movie that sees Black Widow taking one for the team, in the process setting a heroic example for her little sister to (hopefully) follow.

This movie also remains Marvel at its finest, and serves as a timely reminder of what the mighty franchise can achieve when it’s firing on all cylinders.

4. Hawkeye

It seems we’re making you watch (or perhaps rewatch) a lot of the weaker entries to the MCU, but stick with us! It’ll all pay off. Talking of weaker entries, you should probably watch through Hawkeye again. It has the benefit of getting us closer to the Yelena Belova of Thunderbolts*.

At this point in the timeline our highly trained spy and assassin is more than a little raw at her sister’s (Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow – do keep up) death in Endgame, and she’s looking for payback in all the wrong places.

5. Captain America: The First Avenger

As nominal leader of the team of anti-heroes occasionally known as the Thunderbolts, it pays to gen up on your Bucky Barnes. Sebastian Stan’s character has one of the strongest and most extensive arcs in the MCU.

The hero formerly known as The Winter Soldier made his first appearance in the very first Captain America movie, which sets out his defining characteristics as an all-American tough guy who remains loyal to Steve Rogers from his early days in Brooklyn through to his apparent demise defending Captain America during World War II.

6. Captain America: The Winter Soldier

SPOILER ALERT: Bucky Barnes didn’t die in World War II at all. Shocking, we know. Captain America: The Winter Soldier details how he was captured alive by Hydra, further enhanced into a Captain America-tier super soldier, and brainwashed into becoming an ageless assassin known as The Winter Soldier.

The second part of the Captain America movie series often resembles a classic political thriller, but it also explains the root of the trauma and guilt that Barnes is feeling at the onset of Thunderbolts*.

7. Captain America: Civil War

It’s worth completing the Steve Rogers trilogy, because it also effectively stands as a Bucky Barnes trilogy. At the onset of this third movie, Barnes is ostensibly free from his brainwashing and on the run from law enforcement.

Before long he becomes an unwitting yet pivotal tool used to drive a wedge between the two leading figures of The Avengers, Steve Rogers and Tony Stark. The film details some of the nefarious deeds Barnes was forced to undertake during his extended stint as a Hydra weapon. It’s no wonder he’s so grumpy all the time.

8. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier

Again, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier isn’t the strongest entry in the MCU’s run of TV shows, but it provides some invaluable research material heading into Thunderbolts*.

Not only does it show us a rehabilitated yet listless Bucky Barnes trying to find his place in the world post-Endgame, but it also introduces us to the final member of the Thunderbolts team – Wyatt Russell’s John Walker. This would-be Captain America replacement has all of the skills, determination and (eventually) strength of the original Cap, but crucially not the unimpeachable moral fibre.

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