Marvel's Original Thunderbolts Plans Were Similar To A Bruce Willis Action Movie

If there's anything that Marvel Studios has a vested interest in, it's team-up movies. All of the "Avengers" adventures were billed as events, complete with a who's who of names in starring roles as your favorite comic book characters. 2023's "The Marvels" attempted to recapture some of that magic to mixed results, while the deeply obnoxious "Deadpool & Wolverine" went on to become a massive earner and record breaker. But the biggest surprise to come out of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is "Guardians of the Galaxy" and how its scrappy band of space misfits were able to propel a trilogy of films that still stand among the studio's best.

Half of the fun of these movies was watching previously obscure Marvel characters get thrust into the spotlight and seeing how they played off one another. The Guardians were the underdogs who had to prove themselves among the studio's more popular roster of characters. The same challenge now applies to the upcoming "Thunderbolts*," whose lineup includes a collective of anti-heroes from "The Falcon and the Winter Soldier," "Black Widow," and "Ant-Man and the Wasp." It's essentially Marvel's answer to DC's "Suicide Squad."

I'm cautiously optimistic about "Thunderbolts*" simply because it has Florence Pugh, David Harbour, Sebastian Stan, and Wyatt Russell at each other's throats. Early reactions to screenings of the film give the impression that Marvel has a winner on their hands, one that feels like a return to form. As the film encroaches closer and closer to its May 2 release date, it's interesting to learn that one version of its script supposedly mirrored elements from a beloved Bruce Willis movie.

You may not immediately associate "Die Hard" with this kind of ensemble movie, but according to "Thunderbolts*" director Jake Schreier, there was a previous version of this film that did (via Games Radar):

"When [screenwriter] Eric Pearson came up with it with Brian Chapek, I think one of the original versions was kind of like a Die Hard thing. Or it was all going to take place in this vault, and getting out of it, which would have been a very cool thing. So I think in the DNA of the film, it was always a little bit more contained."

While certain plot details are being kept under wraps, the marketing materials indicate that a lot of these characters will be introduced to one another in this vault within the repurposed Avengers tower. It's now owned by Julia Louis-Dreyfus' Contessa Valentina Allegra de la Fontaine, so it makes sense that she would use this space — now called the Watchtower — to throw them all together and see what happens. I have to imagine the "Die Hard" element would have had the Watchtower as a character itself, with the anti-heroes having to ascend the building to take out a villain at the top. But that may have ultimately been too close to something like "The Raid: Redemption."

The issue with making comparisons to "Die Hard" is that the John McTiernan-directed action flick is about the might of one flawed individual overcoming a team of baddies to rescue the woman he loves. I could envision a version of the "Thunderbolts*" where Valentina has hired this crew to stop a character from getting what they want. How much of that initial draft made it into the film? We'll have to wait another few days to find out.

"Thunderbolts*" is set to hit theaters nationwide on May 2, 2025.