When Marvel hired Jake Schreier to direct Thunderbolts, the message was clear: Make it feel different. And by “different,” they apparently meant slapping an A24 filter over a movie with a budget north of $150 million, a cast of recognizable Marvel heroes, and the full weight of Disney’s marketing machine behind it. Because nothing screams “arthouse indie” like a superhero blockbuster with a global theatrical release.
“It ended up becoming this quite badass indie, A24-feeling assassin movie with Marvel superheroes,” Florence Pugh told Empire, discussing her return as Yelena Belova. Schreier, whose past work includes Beef (an actual A24 project), noted that the film’s tone carries a bit of that show’s sensibility. “There’s an emotional darkness that we brought to this that is resonant, but doesn’t come at the expense of comedy.”
While the Thunderbolts lineup lacks the usual superpowered heavy-hitters (unless you count Ghost’s ability to phase through objects), its characters are more like lost souls searching for redemption. According to Pugh, her character finds herself drawn to Lewis Pullman’s mysterious ‘Bob’—a character who, she says, is “absolutely useless,” making him perhaps the most relatable hero in the entire MCU.
Marvel is doubling down on this “indie cred” angle in its marketing. A newly released teaser leans hard on the film’s A24-adjacent credentials, touting Thunderbolts as being made by “the writers and director of Beef,” “the editor of Minari,” and “the composers of Everything Everywhere All at Once.” The cast’s connections to indie cinema are also highlighted, with nods to Pugh’s Midsommar, Sebastian Stan’s A Different Man, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ You Hurt My Feelings.
A24 even responded to the teaser on social media with a meme from Euphoria featuring Alexa Demie asking, “Wait, is this f—ing play about us?”—which is about as close to an endorsement as they’ll probably get.
Despite the marketing push, Thunderbolts is still very much a Marvel movie, complete with high-stakes action, quippy dialogue, and a sprawling cinematic universe to service. So, while it might borrow some indie aesthetics, calling it an “A24-feeling” film is about as convincing as calling Avengers: Endgame a Sundance darling.
Marvel’s recent struggles at the box office have likely played a role in this rebranding effort. With audiences showing signs of superhero fatigue and films like Captain America: Brave New World seeing a significant second-week drop, the studio seems desperate to convince moviegoers that this is something fresh. But at the end of the day, no amount of A24 name-dropping will change the reality: Thunderbolts is still a massive, effects-heavy, corporate-backed superhero flick. The only indie thing about it is the marketing spin.