Thunderbolts Director Jake Schreier on making Marvel's most emotional film: 'Depression, isolation, or emptiness are no longer niche, they're universal'

Time of India

30-04-2025

is the latest filmmaker to step into the ever-expanding
Marvel Cinematic Universe
, helming Thunderbolts — a film that doesn't just entertain but leaves a lingering emotional imprint.
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It wounds, it heals, and it haunts long after the credits roll.
'Forgive us for the haunting — we'll take the other ones,' Schreier laughs, acknowledging the film's emotional impact in an interview with ETimes.
Hitting theatres on Thursday, May 1, Thunderbolts is set to be one of Marvel's most emotionally resonant projects to date. Schreier, best known for his acclaimed work on the Emmy-winning series Beef, brings a distinct sensitivity to the superhero ensemble.
Under his direction, this isn't just another mission — it's a deep dive into the fractured psyches of some of Marvel's most morally complex characters.
Thunderbolts Director Jake Schreier Hails Sebastian Stan, Florence Pugh; Talks Dark MCU Storyline
When asked about the challenges of balancing weighty themes within the superhero genre, Schreier says, "Anytime you're trying to do something difficult like that — just like in the movie — you're very reliant on the people around you that you're working with. I was very lucky to have a lot of collaborators from Beef, which deals with a lot of similar themes.
Lee Sung Jin, who created it, wrote multiple drafts of the script; Grace Yoon, our production designer; and Harry Yoon, our editor."
Also known for his work on
's music video 'Lonely' and Kendrick Lamar's 'We Cry Together', Jake now brings that same sensitivity to a team of Marvel's most bruised and broken heroes. Emphasizing the importance of collaboration in making emotionally honest stories work, he explains, "I think, if you're trying to make a movie about things that feel real and human, then you just want everyone that you're working with to bring their best and also bring something personal of themselves to the work.
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On this movie, we just felt very lucky to have an incredible crew but also this incredible group of actors who really care deeply about these characters that they've already portrayed and want to make sure that there's honesty in where you take them going forward and kind of was very collaborative in that way of working together on where we were going to take the story."
With films like Joker: Folie à Deux drawing mixed reactions for diving deep into darker character studies, Schreier was asked whether audiences are ready for this kind of storytelling in the MCU.
"Yeah, I think people are," Schreier affirmed. "We're in a world where these ideas aren't niche anymore. When we were working on Beef, that was Sonny's main idea — that themes like depression, isolation, or emptiness aren't small ideas. They're universal ones."
He added that while Thunderbolts doesn't shy away from these emotional depths, it doesn't sacrifice Marvel's signature fun either.
"There's plenty of humour to be found in this movie, and there's certainly plenty of action.
Even Julia Louis-Dreyfus punches someone," he quipped. "So it never felt like we were giving up the things that make a Marvel movie a Marvel movie — we just wanted all of it to go together into something that feels very different but still lives up to the legacy of the MCU."
In Thunderbolts, Marvel Studios brings together an unlikely group of antiheroes — Yelena Belova, Bucky Barnes, Red Guardian, Ghost, Taskmaster, and John Walker.
Trapped in a deadly conspiracy orchestrated by Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, this fractured group of misfits is thrust into a high-stakes mission that forces them to confront the demons of their past.
The ensemble cast includes
,
,
, Olga Kurylenko, Lewis Pullman, Geraldine Viswanathan, Chris Bauer, and Wendell Pierce, with
, Hannah John-Kamen, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus rounding out the star-studded lineup.