‘Thunderbolts*' Star On Thrill of Reprising Ghost In New Marvel Movie

Forbes

02-05-2025

Hannah John-Kamen in "Thunderbolts*."
Disney/Marvel Studios
With the new Marvel movie Thunderbolts*, Hannah John-Kamen is getting a rare opportunity for any actor in any type of movie.
Starting out as the main villain, Ava Starr/Ghost, in 2018's Marvel Cinematic Universe hit Ant-Man and the Wasp, John-Kamen's character has turned away from being an out-and-out villiain into an antihero in Thunderbolts*.
As such, Ghost is part of a group of bad guys taking on the worse guys, where she, Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), Red Guardian (David Harbour) and John Walker (Wyatt Russell) have the propensity to do good things despite their checkered pasts.
While Thunderbolts* has all the action, intensity and suspense that fans of the MCU have come to know and love since Iron Man kicked off the sprawling movie series in 2008, it fully embraces an antihero ideology, which to date has largely been about superheroes.
But being a hero who does good things isn't fully out of the depth of the members of the group in Thunderbolts*.
'What this movie does is it forces us not to just to be a team, but gives the ability look at ourselves and ask for forgiveness so we can actually dream bigger than what we thought we could … that the idea of being a hero isn't so ridiculous,' John-Kamen said in a Zoom conversation Friday. 'We've been trained into a routine to think that we don't deserve it otherwise. I think this movie gives us so more depth for our characters and so much more of a journey to go on.'
Opening in theaters worldwide on Friday, Thunderbolts* is set not long after the events of the previous MCU chapter Captain America: Brave New World. At the beginning of the film, Yelena is sent by CIA Director Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) to eliminate a target at a secret O.X.E. facility where superhuman experiments are being conducted.
When Yelena arrives at the facility, she encounters Ghost, John Walker and Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko), who have also been sent to the facility with similar orders from Valentina to essentially eliminate one another. To survive politically, Valentina needs to wash her hands of any illegal covert government activities. If her dirty secrets are exposed, Valentina faces orders of impeachment from U.S. Congress.
However, when the group of would-be assassins survives Valentina's attempt at their across-the-board elimination, they make like the old Avengers and assemble a team — along with Bucky and the Red Guardian — to apprehend the CIA director and thwart her plans to introduce a new and very dangerous superhuman to the world dubbed 'The Sentry.'
Since Ava/Ghost's story in Thunderbolts* is dictated by Eric Pearson and Joanna Calo's script — as well as filmmaker Jake Schreier's direction — Hannah John-Kamen said she didn't necessarily try to enhance who Ava/Ghost was in 2018's Ant-Man and the Wasp.
Effectively, Thunderbolts* signals a new day for Ava/Ghost, which means she was happy to leave who her character was in Ant-Man and the Wasp in the rear-view mirror.
'Jake and I really discussed this because it's a different Ava. I've really wanted to leave the other Ava behind in a way because in [Ant-Man and the Wasp], I played a girl who was completely riddled with pain and death,' John-Kamen explained. 'That was the driving force behind her bad decision-making. Her uncontrollable, naive and immature ways of trying to deal with her survival was to kill other people, so she lost her way and lost her control completely.'
Now, John-Kamen said, Ava/Ghost — who has an unstable molecular composition that allows her to move through objects like a specter — 'has matured and is all grown up and in control of her powers.'
'She's got a very hard exterior … and she doesn't depend on anyone," John-Kamen said. "She doesn't need anyone, and she's in a different rhythm completely, not the rhythm in the original movie.'
Another big change for Ava/Ghost is a whole new outfit, which has is jet black and has a commando feel — the polar opposite of her white, ghostlike attire in Ant-Man and the Wasp.
"The new costume is insanely detailed and beautiful,' John-Kamen enthused. 'It's really a big part of your day in Marvel Universe when we're filming because when we block the scenes, we're all in our undergarments and leggings with Ugg boots on set. As soon as we all get suited up — which is a good 25-minute process — and we return to set, it feels like we have different powers. Your posture changes. Everything you do feels elevated.'
On top of that, John-Kamen's costumes in Ant-Man and the Wasp and Thunderbolts* define who Ava/Ghost is in dramatically different ways.
'The original Ghost costume was interesting because it was so badass before, but it was also functional,' John-Kamen explained. 'The idea was that Ava and Bill Foster (Laurence Fishburne) had created this costume for her to not flicker away to death. It was more of a practical thing because it was a chamber that she was in.
'In Thunderbolts*, Ava is in a costume that was made for Ghost's abilities,' John-Kamen added. 'It's elevated and has a different power and energy and a different control. It's scarier and it's more warrior.'
Rated PG-13, Thunderbolts* also stars Lewis Pullman, Geraldine Viswanathan, Chris Bauer and Wendell Pierce. Thunderbolts* opens in theaters worldwide on Friday.
Note: Some quotes in this interview feature for 'Thunderbolts*' were condensed and edited for clarity.