MCU Phase 5's last movie, Sam Wilson and Baron Zemo.
Back in the '90s, Marvel Comics' Baron Helmut Zemo embarked on a plan to reestablish his old team The Masters of Evil, which was originally founded to destroy Captain America and the Avengers. Zemo recruited various lackeys to his cause, but he was beat to the punch by the psychic villain Onslaught, who had already dispatched most of the Avengers before the Masters of Evil could act. Zemo's henchman Goliath joked that they could replace the Avengers instead. This inspired Zemo to rebrand the Masters of Evil into the Thunderbolts, faking new superhero identities for his henchmen in order to gain the public's trust for profit. In the absence of the Avengers and the Fantastic Four, the Thunderbolts were welcomed by the people after they saved New York City. After Zemo outed his evil schemes, many of the original Thunderbolts defected and became legitimate heroes. Over the years, Marvel's Thunderbolts roster grew as the team's leadership was ed on between both prominent heroes and villains, leading Marvel's antiheroes into a variety of story arcs that examined heroism from angles unavailable to straightforward superhero teams like the Avengers and the Fantastic Four.
The Thunderbolts were corrupt when they were led by villains like Baron Zemo, Norman Osborn, and Wilson Fisk, but they became a legitimate superhero team under the leadership of people like Hawkeye, the Winter Soldier, Luke Cage, and Steve Rogers. After one of the many instances in which the Thunderbolts were disbanded, the Redeemers were formed as a mirror of the original team, which was led by a Zemo-possessed Citizen V and were also trained by Captain America. Later, following the fall of Norman Osborn's Thunderbolts - which was also called the Dark Avengers - Rogers established a new Thunderbolts led by Luke Cage. During Marvel Comics' "Heroic Age," this new Thunderbolts rehabilitated super-villains from the Raft, which even led Luke Cage to work with Doctor Strange. Notably, Steve Rogers has retired in the MCU. However, the Thunderbolts' Captain America associations can still be explored in the movies through the developing character arcs of not just the new Cap, Sam Wilson, but also the cunning Baron Zemo. The MCU could use these comic book storylines in both Captain America: New World Order and Thunderbolts, the last two movies in the MCU Phase 5 slate.
Thunderbolts Cast & Story: What We Know
Not much has been revealed about the plot of 2024's Thunderbolts movie, though it is likely to be based on the team's rich Marvel Comics history, possibly including Thunderbolts' Captain America link. The MCU Thunderbolts cast is also bound to include Baron Zemo, Yelena Belova, U.S. Agent aka John Walker, Taskmaster, Ghost, and any other MCU characters connected to the team in the comics. That said, though Valentina de Fontaine never worked with the Thunderbolts, she is the primary candidate for leading the team because of how she previously recruited both Walker and Belova into a mysterious new formation. Zemo, Val, and Sam Wilson could be forced to work together in Thunderbolts - pulling the antihero team into their own respective ideals of what the Thunderbolts should be.
Why Captain America Leading The Thunderbolts Is Good For MCU Phase 6
The MCU adapting Thunderbolts' Captain America ties will be scarcely expected by audiences, making it a good way to give the MCU its own unique antihero team-up without being too predictable. This is crucial because audiences will inevitably compare the Thunderbolts and Suicide Squad. With DC having already pulled off the concept of super-villains working for the government, Marvel will need a new twist in order to make its own iteration of the antihero team-up truly distinct. That twist could be the new Captain America leading criminals and super-villains into action.
