With Captain America: Brave New World out in theaters, it’s time to get excited about Marvel’s next big theatrical release and the 2025 MCU project I want to see most. That’s Thunderbolts*, which premieres this May in a spot that’s traditionally reserved for big crossover movies like the Avengers franchise. It’s in late April or early May that movies like Infinity War, Endgame, Doomsday, and Secret Wars have hit theaters or will premiere.
That’s not the only interesting connection between Thunderbolts* and Avengers movies. The runtime for the upcoming crossover has leaked, and it almost matches Avengers movies. That’s all great news to me, and you might already suspect the reason why I’m pointing out these correlations.
It’s all about that asterisk in the Thunderbolts* title, but before I can explain, know that massive spoilers might follow below.
Redditors found the Thunderbolts* runtime on the website of the UK movie theater chain Odeon. If the information is accurate, the film will last over two hours. That’s two hours and 20 minutes of Avengers-like adventures.
The runtime of a superhero movie might seem trivial. Most of these movies are at least two hours long. The bigger MCU projects, like the massive Avengers crossovers, can last up to three hours. Marvel needs to squeeze in a lot of story, even though some moviegoers don’t appreciate spending that much time seated in a theater.
Meanwhile, time will fly for fans deeply invested in Marvel’s Cinematic Universe, especially if the story is right.
It’s not just Avengers movies that have long runtimes. Other big crossovers tell important MCU stories and have runtimes that exceed two hours.
Spider-Man: No Way Home, Captain America: Civil War, and Deadpool & Wolverine run for 2 hours and 28 minutes, 2 hours and 27 minutes, and 2 hours and 8 minutes, respectively. The films are also quite enjoyable, and I’d rewatch two of them at any given moment. No Way Home is the one that I don’t need to revisit, but that concerns my superhero preferences.
A long runtime doesn’t mean the MCU movie will be good. That’s not why I’m excited about Thunderbolts* getting a runtime of two hours and 20 minutes.
Like I said before, it’s all about that asterisk in the title. Marvel added it well after announcing the film’s title, with fans trying to figure out what it means ever since.
The prevailing theory is that the Thunderbolts won’t call themselves that by the end of the movie. Instead, they’ll become the New Avengers either because someone calls them that or because they decide to use the moniker.
I’m a big fan of this theory, especially given the grander scheme of things. As we saw in the Super Bowl trailer, the Thunderbolts will help save the world from a big threat. That will surely put them on the radar of everyone on the planet, especially considering that there’s no official team of Avengers defending the planet.
Brave New World gave us confirmation of that. We also learned from Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) that he plans to reform the Avengers. Also, the Captain America 4 story gave us clues that the action in Thunderbolts* will follow the Brave New World events. Sam will probably not have time to find a group of Avengers that fast.
We’re unlikely to get confirmation that the Thunderbolts team becomes the first Avengers team since Endgame before we see the movie. But clues like the early May release date and the longer-than-usual timeline further support the idea that Marvel will drop a big surprise come the release date.
It’s circumstantial evidence, and it’s wishful thinking. I know, I know. But I’m just dying to see this team of misfits and antiheroes become Avengers heroes that people love before we actually get to see the real Avengers show up. Remember that the world still loves superheroes, including the Avengers, despite the world not having an Avengers team on standby.
I also expect most Thunderbolts to survive fighting Bob (Lewis Pullman) in the movie. Become Avengers makes them easy targets for Doctor Doom (Robert Downey Jr.) in the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday crossover, but that’s a story for a different time.
Whether my theory pans out, Thunderbolts* is set to premiere on May 2nd. It won’t be long until Marvel starts promoting the movie, which is when we might find out more details about the story.
