Today Marvel released our first detailed look at Thunderbolts*his new antihero team-up movie, bringing together a ragtag crew of renegades from a variety of past Marvel projects. It’s been a while since we’ve seen many of these characters – and one of them is completely new to the MCU, so if you need a refresher on who’s who and where they’ve been, we’re here to help.

Elena Belova

She is a former Black Widow and adopted sister of Natasha Romanoff. After meeting her in Black widow In the film, we last saw Yelena acting on information given to her by Valentina (more about her later), after Natasha’s death in Avengers: EndgameWhen de Fontaine learned that her sister was actually killed by Clint Barton, Yelena hunted down Clint in Hawkeye streaming series, crosses paths with his partner in Arrow vigilante Kate Bishop before coming to blows with Clint. The duo successfully managed to convince Yelena of the true circumstances surrounding Natasha’s death – and how her sacrifice helped bring Yelena back from the dead, as she was a victim of Thanos’ snipe – and the former assassin parted ways with the two archers and headed off to parts unknown, where they were conveniently picked up by Thunderbolts.

Ava Starr, also known as Ghost

Last seen in Ant-Man and the WaspAva was the victim of an accident when her father, Elihas, attempted to dig a tunnel into the Quantum Realm. Doused with quantum energy in the explosion that killed her parents, Ava suffered from “molecular imbalance,” a torturous disease that destabilized her body and rendered her intangible. Adopted by one of her father’s colleagues, Bill Foster, Ava was eventually recruited by SHIELD. She was given a “ghost suit” to help her control her powers and pain, and trained as a secret agent until the organization was disbanded. When we last saw her, she had turned to crime in search of a cure for her deteriorating condition, crossing path with Hank Pym—who had ousted her father from SHIELD years earlier—and his own quantum tunneling technology. After the clash with Ant-Man and the Wasp, Ava’s condition was temporarily stabilized by the return of the original Wasp, Janet Van Dyne, from the Quantum Realm, and she went into hiding with Foster to continue searching for a way to fully heal her. She does not seem to have found that by ThunderboltsBut does have a fancy new ghost suit.

John Walker, also known as US Agent

Introduced in The Falcon and the Winter SoldierJohn was the US government’s official replacement for Steve Rogers as Captain America after the events of Avengers: Endgame. Walker, a former U.S. Army Ranger, was tasked with investigating the anti-nationalist group the Flag Smashers in his first official duties as Captain America, alongside Sam Wilson and Bucky Barnes. The stress of the operation—including clashes with Barnes and Wilson over his inheritance of Rogers’ mantle and struggles to capture Flag Smashers leader Karli Morgenthau—led to Walker ingesting a stolen vial of the replica Super Soldier Serum, which gave him enhanced physical abilities. When Walker’s partner in the operation, Lemar Hoskins, was killed in a fight with Morgenthau, the serum drove Walker to publicly and angrily execute a Flag Smasher, after which he was stripped of his officer rank and the Captain America mantle. However, this did not stop de Fontaine from personally recruiting him to continue working for the United States as a U.S. Agent, a black ops specialist.

Antonia Dreykov, also known as Taskmaster

The antagonist of Black widowAntonia Dreykov was the daughter of General Dreykov, overseer of the Soviet government’s Red Room Academy, the training facility that recruited young women to become the elite cover agents and assassins of the Black Widow program. When General Dreykov targeted former widow Natasha Romanoff in a bombing raid in Budapest, Antonia was caught in the blast and critically injured. Dreykov saved his daughter’s life by implanting a regulation chip in her neck that reduced her pain and emotional reactions and gave Dreykov control over his own daughter – control he used to put her through Red Room training himself, exploiting her photographic reflexes to train her to be his ultimate agent. Now acting as Taskmaster, Antonia crossed paths with Romanoff again when she was tasked by her father to capture the renegade Yelena, who had stolen a compound that could be used to disrupt his control over the indoctrinated Widows. During their hunt, Romanoff introduced Antonia to the compound, freed her from her father’s brainwashing, and left the surviving freed Widows with her to recover.

Alexei Shostakov, also known as Red Guardian

If Thunderbolts slowly feels like a Black widow Continuation, well, it somehow is. Alexei is another product of Soviet war research, the first official Russian super-soldier and a father figure to Natasha and Yelena after an undercover operation where he acted as their adoptive father alongside Red Room agent and scientist Melina Vostokoff. After Shostakov was imprisoned by Dreykov following the success of the operation, he was freed years later by Natasha and Yelena to help them, along with their adoptive mother and father, bring down the Red Room once and for all. After helping them rescue the freed widows, we see that by the time Thunderbolts begins: Alexei is living alone again, passing the time with drinks and DoorDash deliveries and waiting for a chance to disguise himself as the Red Guardian again.

Bucky Barnes, also known as the Winter Soldier

Bucky is probably the most well-known member of the team and also has the longest history in the MCU. He was Steve Rogers’ best friend and former partner during World War II until he was seemingly killed during a mission and captured by Hydra to be brainwashed as their own black ops agent, the Winter Soldier. Bucky has had many roles since being freed from his programming and eventually fully cured with the help of the Wakandans. After being killed by Thanos’ flick and resurrected years later, Bucky was last properly seen in The Falcon and tThe Winter Soldierto help Sam stop the threat of the Flag Smashers (and eventually John Walker). How he got into de Fontaine’s orbit remains to be seen in Thunderboltsbut maybe he mentions that Nebula once stole his arm.

Valentina Allegra de Fontaine

The architect of this new Thunderbolts Team, de Fontaine is the head of the CIA and occasionally appeared after her debut in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier to begin recruiting personnel to her side who operate in secret, like Walker and Yelena. We’ll no doubt see how well that works out for her in the new film. Although the MCU version of the character hasn’t talked about it much yet, in the comics, de Fontaine has a long, complicated history as a triple agent who worked within SHIELD and eventually Hydra, as a Russian agent for the national intelligence agency Leviathan, and even served as a second Madame Hydra for a time. Given the MCU’s history with Hydra, time will tell if Valentina has a few more tricks up her sleeve.

“Bob,” also known as the sentry?

The last major figure we see in the Thunderbolts trailer is one we know the least about – because he makes his debut in this film. But the mysterious “Bob,” as he calls himself in the trailer, played by Lewis Pullman (replacing Steven Yeun, who was originally cast in the film), is rumored to be playing a major character from the comics, judging by his shortened name and the bullet-stopping skills we briefly see in the trailer: Robert Reynolds, aka Sentry.

Introduced as a quasi-variety of DC’s Superman (one of many over the years), the Sentry came into being after Reynolds, a down-and-out meth addict, broke into a researcher’s lab and accidentally administered the Golden Sentry Serum, which mutated him with tremendous superhuman strength, speed, and durability. Robert was retroactively introduced in 2000 as one of the oldest active superheroes in the Marvel Universe, before the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, the X-Men, and others made public appearances. He has a long comic book history, including battling the threat of his dark other half, the Void, as well as the traditional storyline of being killed at least a few times. His most recent death occurred during the events of the King in Black Event in 2020, when Sentry is killed by the god of symbiotes, Knull (who is currently making his own cinematic debut in Venom: The Last Dance). Robert’s soul was taken to Valhalla in honor of his heroic duties in life, while… his body was used by an evil magical terrorist group that wanted to kill Doctor Strange with a corpse bomb? Comics!

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