It Will Take Over 37 Hours to Catch Up with the MCU for Thunderbolts*

Marvel’s upcoming movie Thunderbolts* features a cast of familiar faces… familiar, that is, if you’ve been paying a lot of attention to the MCU timeline post-Avengers: Endgame and the conclusion of Phase 3. The ensemble adventure brings together an eclectic array of anti-hero characters from an assortment of previously released movies and TV shows, characters played by Florence Pugh, Sebastian Stan, David Harbour, and more.

What kinds of evil will the assembled Thunderbolts fight when the movie premieres on May 2nd? No spoilers here. But with the movie’s premiere on the horizon, it’s worth cataloging just how much of Marvel’s past the new movie is built upon.

It’s likely that, as with the first big MCU team-up, 2012’s The Avengers, Thunderbolts* will make a point of providing at least brief introductions/explanations as to who some of the lesser-known characters are. However, perhaps you’re a Lewis Pullman superfan who’s never seen anything Marvel before, and you want to catch up on everything you’ve missed. Or maybe you stopped paying attention to after Endgame, but you’re very curious about the fact that Julia Louis-Dreyfus is in this new movie.

So, character by character, let’s figure out how many hours of past Marvel entertainment you’ll want to watch, if you want to feel fully caught up in time for the new movie. The good news is that the total isn’t as bad as it could be, since many of these characters appeared together in past projects; there’s a lot of doubling-up here. Also, we’re not including alternate universe adventures like the animated series What If…?, which did feature multiple appearances from Thunderbolts* cast members, but by design exists outside the established MCU continuity.

With all that said… Whoof. There’s still a lot to watch.

Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh)

First appearance: Black Widow (2021)
Also shows up in: Hawkeye (2021)

Florence Pugh wasn’t quite the level of star she is now when she was originally cast as Natasha Romanoff’s adopted sister, but here she is at the top of the cast list for Thunderbolts*, and well-deserved. (Yes, she’s not the only Oscar nominee in the cast, but she got hers first.) Yelena was instantly one of the best things about Black Widow when it premiered, and her surprise appearance in the back half of Hawkeye was also one of the best things about that show.

Note: In this tally, we’ve included all six episodes of Hawkeye, not just the three episodes Pugh appears in, because the second half of the season won’t make much sense without watching the first. But sure, if you just want to see Pugh in action, start with Episode 4.

Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan)

First appearance: Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)
Also shows up in: Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014), Ant-Man (2015 — post-credits scene only), Captain America: Civil War (2016), Black Panther (2018 — post-credits scene only), Avengers: Infinity War (2018), Avengers: Endgame (2019), The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (2021), Captain America: Brave New World (2025)

Without question, Bucky’s presence has the biggest effect on our tally, since he’s the movie’s oldest cast member (both in terms of his introduction into the MCU and the character’s actual age). Most of his appearances took place prior to Phase 4, but because of him as well as other characters on this list, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier is probably the most essential pre-Thunderbolts* viewing. His cameo in this year’s Brave New World is also a bit necessary, since it establishes Bucky’s new status quo going into Thunderbolts*, though it’s not hard to spoil yourself for what happens.

Note: That Ant-Man post-credits stinger is technically just a preview clip of Civil War, but we’re keeping the 2015 film in the tally because you really have to see Ant-Man in full to understand how that scene comes about.

John Walker/U.S. Agent (Wyatt Russell)

First appearance: The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (2021)
Also shows up in: N/A

Wyatt Russell shaved off his well-established beard to play the complicated villain dubbed U.S. Agent in Falcon and the Winter Soldier. As hinted at by the finale of that Disney+ series, John Walker apparently hasn’t stopped serving America under the radar, as the obvious juice of Thunderbolts* is going to come from what happens when Walker has to confront past foe Bucky Barnes — or work alongside him. Again, Falcon feels like the most important homework a newcomer should watch before the new movie’s premiere.