Actor Daniel Brühl, who portrayed Baron Zemo in Captain America: Civil War and reprised the role in the disastrous Falcon and the Winter Soldier Disney+ series, all but confirmed the upcoming Thunderbolts film is not worth watching as he won’t be appearing in the film.
(L-R): Zemo (Daniel Brühl), Falcon/Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) and Winter Soldier/Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) in Marvel Studios’ THE FALCON AND THE WINTER SOLDIER exclusively on Disney+. Photo courtesy of Marvel Studios. ©Marvel Studios 2021. All Rights Reserved.
Speaking with ScreenRant, Brühl indicated he was open to returning to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but he does not have anything on his schedule for the studio at the moment.
He said, “I mean, they haven’t killed me yet… [Right] now I’m doing a series, which is called The Franchise. But if there are people who have a lot of sense of humor, then it’s Marvel and it’s Kevin Feige. I’m very happy to shoot something about the franchise world and with a comical approach.”
Zemo (Daniel Brühl) in Marvel Studios’ THE FALCON AND THE WINTER SOLDIER exclusively on Disney+. Photo courtesy of Marvel Studios. ©Marvel Studios 2021. All Rights Reserved.
Brühl then shared his thoughts about Zemo, “But I guess it was nice with that Zemo guy because he was so surprising and different. Also, the second time around I was invited to explore the sense of humor in that character, which I relish and enjoy so much. So again, it was a surprise, I was invited to surprise the people.
He continued, “So I guess that if he shows up again, you really need to carefully think what is this crazy little guy up to this time around? So if the right opportunity would come, I wouldn’t say no, obviously. But for now, I’m into other things that I’m very happy with because that might have collided. I think they’re shooting [Thunderbolts] right now, so the destiny and fate always. I strongly believe in that. You just follow the path that you are offered to follow.”
(L-R): Zemo (Daniel Brühl), Falcon/Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie), Winter Soldier/Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) and Sharon Carter/Agent 13 (Emily VanCamp) in Marvel Studios’ THE FALCON AND THE WINTER SOLDIER exclusively on Disney+. Photo by Chuck Zlotnick. ©Marvel Studios 2021. All Rights Reserved.
Brühl’s comments in the wake of the film’s director Jake Schreier promising that the movie has a “very different perspective than maybe people are expecting.”
Schreier was asked by Collider, “When you were offered the chance to direct Thunderbolts what did you think you would gain from that opportunity as a director evolving his craft?”
He answered, “I think, you know, what jumped out was– I mean, first off, the cast is just incredible and I think like any movie with that cast like how could you not be excited about getting to work with that group of people.”
Schreier would add, “But beyond that, it was just like a really different approach and a new kind of story to tell amidst that which I know they’ve made so many things.”
He continued, “But it’s not a sequel. Yes, these characters have appeared before, but it is a new story being told and a story I think with a very different perspective than people are expecting. And that felt exciting and felt like a real challenge worth taking on.”
Thunderbolts logo
As for the film’s tone, he said, “I mean, obviously, I can say so little, but I think it’s just about characters and is there something specific to those characters that bring them together and something that they’re going through that isn’t, you know, the most traditional superhero story to be told.”
“And, I think, if you can hit that and if you can make it specific,” he shared. “I think if you look at something like Beef, what makes it what it is is that it’s so specific on so many levels. [Beef creator Lee Sung Jin] brought so much of himself to it, Ali [Wong], Steven [Yuen], everybody. And in being so specific becomes something universal.”
Next, he explained how he plans to do this with Thunderbolts, “And I think that’s sort of similar to the way that we’re looking at Thunderbolts is that there is a real, clear take and perspective on these characters, and there’s a specificity to it. That, in the end, obviously, we want to make the big universal movie that everyone can connect to, but that you can only do that by making something that feels personal. And I think that’s what’s exciting about the project to us.”
Thunderbolts #1 (1997), Marvel Comics
Brühl’s comments are just the latest piece of evidence that appear Marvel Studios will continue to abandon the core of their characters and teams despite massive box office losses with The Marvels and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania this year.
In the original Marvel Comics, the Thunderbolts team were actually the Masters of Evil in disguise. They went by the hero names of Citizen V, Mach-1, Songbird, Techno, Atlas, and Meteorite, but were actually Baron Zemo, Fixer, Beetle, Screaming Mimi, Goliath, and Moonstone.
The team took up hero responsibilities when it was revealed the Avengers and Fantastic Four had perished. However, when it was discovered they were not actually dead, Zemo outed the team in order to keep them all under his thumb after a number of them had begun seeing themselves as heroes.
His strategy blew up in his face as most of the team turned on him. However, he deployed a mind control device that pitted the Thunderbolts against the Avengers and Fantastic Four.
Baron Zemo reveals the Thunderbolts are the Masters of Evil in disguise in Thunderbolts #1 (1997), Marvel Comics
It does not like we will get anything like this in the film and the fact that Brühl’s Zemo is not apart of it makes the film dead on arrival.
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