Words Scott J. Davis

Marvel is back! After taking a brief hiatus to refine their upcoming slate – despite dropping Deadpool & Wolverine, Agatha All Along, and the bombshell news of Robert Downey Jr’s return as Doctor Doom in that time – the MCU is up and running once more and set to take 2025 and beyond by storm.

Anthony Mackie takes flight as Captain America, the new look Fantastic Four enter the fray, and most exciting of all, is the long-mooted team-up of misfit antiheroes from across the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Introducing the Thunderbolts* – yes, asterisk and all. Florence Pugh’s Yelena Belova, Sebastian Stan’s Bucky Barnes, David Harbour’s Red Guardian, Hannah John-Kamen’s Ghost, Olga Kurylenko’s Taskmaster, Wyatt Russell’s John Walker, and Lewis Pullman’s Bob aka Sentry are brought together to fight for the U.S. government. With this renewed sense of purpose as part of a daresay “team,” they may have each just found a way of making being bad… good, but only if they can stop shooting and punching each other first.

Pulling the strings, it seems, is Julia Louis Dreyfus’ Valentina Allegra de Fontaine but their name suggests that someone bigger – much, much bigger – is really in charge.

Everything, as ever with Marvel, is under strict lock and key, but there’s more than enough to get excited for.

Shock And Awe!

Harrison Ford

He's front and centre of Captain America: Brave New World, but there's not doubt President Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross has a big part to play here, too – literally. Red Hulk has much to smash.

Rachel Weisz

With Yelena and Red Guardian reuniting from Black Widow, perhaps there's some unfinished family business to sort their with their surrogate matriarch, Melina Vostokoff.

Laurence Fishburne

In Ant-Man And The Wasp, Fishburbe's Bill Foster hopes to find a cure for Ava Starr aka Ghosts's molecular problems, perhaps he's also helped her stay off-grid in all the time since.