Thunderbolts* Starts with a jump into the unknown: Florence Pugh falls as Yelena Belova falls from the world’s second highest building. In the First part of our interview with director Jake Schreier We talked about all the details that had to be clarified to carry out a life -threatening stunt like this. But what does Yelena really do when she is up there on the roof?

The new Marvel film is not only interested in show values ​​and action, but also wonders how the title-giving antihero is: inside. How do you tell in the blockbuster context of depression? What does the villain of such a story look like? And can the torn feelings be mirrored on a visual level? We spoke to Jake Schreier about it and more.

Moviepilot: Thunderbolts* appeals to some serious topics that are rarely found in a blockbuster of this size, such as suicide and depression. Was it difficult to integrate this into a Marvel film?

Jake Schreier: I was very amazed at how open Marvel was for these topics. I very often spoke to (Marvel boss) Kevin (Fize) and (producer) Lou (d’Esposito) about it because I wanted to tell Thunderbolts* a story that differs from other Marvel films. Much of this also came from (screenwriter) Lee Sung Jin, who already worked with dark topics at (the Netflix series), without having to do without humor-and I also wanted that for Thunderbolts*.

We get to know the humorous, but also the serious side of the individual team members. Because that’s exactly how it is in real life. Some people struggle with the same thoughts as the characters in the film. At the same time, they are the funniest people you know. Nevertheless, you don’t know what you are going through. For me that was one of the sticking points of the film. In order to bring this convincingly in the film, everyone had to be sincere.

For me, one of the strongest pictures is when the inner emptiness of the figures spreads nothing in the city as black. The Void hovers over it and is hardly more than a silhouette itself. How did you get it?

Kevin asked me how we can make The Void filmically a little more unusual. Would it be possible that he would look out as if? We wanted a simple, clear, yet interesting and unexpected form. It wasn’t that easy. We did not manage this effect during the shooting. So we contacted the VFX houses, with which Marvel has often worked.

Most of the suggestions were too close to other films. I wanted us to lean a little further out of the window. In addition, The Void’s appearance was never allowed to become a complete silhouette. But how much do we reveal from its human form? After all, Ilm has done extraordinarily good work with techniques such as redoscoping and very fine textures.

(The Void actor) Lewis (Pullman) must not be forgotten. He brings the figure to life on the set. We carefully weighed what we keep from him and what we replace with CGI. Even if you no longer see it, his body, his facial expressions and gestures provide the basis for all computer -generated effects. So there is a lot of its performance in the film, even his eyes we took over to make this abstract figure look a bit more real.

Thunderbolts* comes especially in blue and gray pictures. Can you tell what your thoughts were behind the look of the film?

I usually limit the color palette when filming in the camera, so that you don’t have to shed everything afterwards in order to make the skin tones look alive and warm. At Thunderbolts* I also had the feeling that it fits the story very well. It’s about a great darkness that devours everything. At the same time, I wanted to create space for humor. I know nobody will believe that on the Internet, but if you really look at the pictures, there are a lot of colors in it.

The sets were already designed with a precise view of the colors that we later wanted in the film. From production design to the costumes – many decisions were made here to control the color palette in the camera. The focus was of course the figures. What does this color tell us about your inner life? After all, we wanted to penetrate them deeply and immerse themselves in their subconscious.

With these scenes in the subconscious, I first had to think of the Marvel series Legion, which also takes place over long distances in the head of the main character. What were your cinematic inspiration for the film?

Christopher Nolan was a name that kept showing up in our conversations. His films are incredibly well done and find a great balance between down -to -earthness and abstraction. That was definitely an important orientation point for us. Metaphysical sequences have already existed in the MCU when we look at Black Panther. How can we stand out from it?

So we ended up in films from the 1990s and early 2000s – Spike Jonze and Michel Gondry would be a few names that I can give you. They had a handmade, very tactile access to surreal, metaphysical things in their films. That seemed to us to be a fresh approach for the Marvel universe. Our film is all about the inner life of the characters, so something very human. And we wanted to reflect that in the design of the film.

Thunderbolts* nevertheless tells of morally ambivalent figures that have done some bad things in the past. What is your tactic as a director so that we can still cheer with you in the cinema?

I think a lot about what I show and what I don’t show. In Yelena’s flashback, for example, things happen that I did not want to formulate completely and therefore only indicated. How much violence is necessary so that the audience can understand character development? And from what point does the representation of violence become an end in itself? I am very careful.

On the set, people even ran over my empathy towards henchmen. Because I don’t like to let them die like that. Yelena shoots a henchman into the leg in one scene. In theory, one could say that she shot him, but it is possible to survive. That makes a big difference for me. In a way, I was the one who slowed down production the most when it came to the uncompromisingness of the representation of violence.

One last point that I am still interested in: You work with Son Lux again, who have already composed the soundtrack to Margo’s traces. What role does music play in the film?

We wanted to get people on board who have never worked in the MCU before and have a fresh perspective. (Son Lux frontman) Ryan (Lott) and Co. had recently shown every thing at everythone all at ons that they can hold an epic film with many difficult topics through their music. The choice was obvious. And as you said: I already knew her from Margo’s traces.

The great thing about our collaboration this time was that they had already written many pieces before filming. They sent me designs with topics and motifs that are now also in the finished film. Even with Table Read we were able to play the first extracts from the soundtrack. And later when we were shooting we used the music so that the actors can put themselves more easily into their characters.

When the film went into the cut, we were able to fall back on a huge music library. Such films are usually always cut to Temm Music, which serves as the basis for the actual film music. But we had our own music from the start. Everything you hear in Thunderbolts* has arisen from real inspiration and no copy. We didn’t want the film to sound like any other action blockbuster to underpin the unusual history of the characters.

—

Thunderbolts* has been running in German cinemas since May 1, 2025.