Could Marvel be trying to get in on some of that indie popularity? With Sean Baker’s Neon release “Anora” running away with five Oscars last weekend, including the top honor of Best Picture, big Hollywood studios like Disney may want some of its own fare to have that independent touch. Such is the case it seems for its upcoming entry in the MCU, “Thunderbolts,” starring Florence Pugh, Sebastian Stan, David Harbour, Lewis Pullman, Wyatt Russell, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus.
Speaking in a recent interview with Empire, Pugh said of the tone the film “ended up becoming this quite badass indie, A24-feeling assassin movie with Marvel superheroes.”
And while A24 and “Anora” studio Neon are decidedly not “rivals,” as Neon CEO Tom Quinn recently said (Neon instead counts Netflix as their “biggest competitor” for acquisition titles), could Marvel be trying to square off with A24?
Marvel and Disney definitely were putting A24 ties front and center in a teaser released on Friday, March 7 that highlights the different A24 indie projects the “Thunderbolts” cast has been a part of, such as “Midsommar” (Pugh), “A Different Man” (Stan), and “You Hurt My Feelings” (Louis-Dreyfus). The teaser also acknowledged the team behind the scenes, including the editor of “Minari” (Harry Yun), the composers of “Everything Everywhere All At Once” (Son Lux), the cinematographer of “The Green Knight” (Andrew Droz Palermo), and the writers & director of “Beef” (Lee Sung Jin, Joanna Calo, Jake Schreier).
A24 even retweeted the “Thunderbolts” teaser citing their films, adding the meme from “Euphoria” (a series they also produced), with featuring Alexa Demie’s character Maddy saying, “Wait, is this fucking play about us?”
And A24’s “Beef” screenwriter Schreier agrees with Marvel and Pugh’s comparisons to the indie world.
Schreier told Empire, “There’s a certain amount of that ‘Beef’ tone in it, that does feel different. There’s an emotional darkness that we brought to this that is resonant, but doesn’t come at the expense of comedy.”
If Schreier and A24 staple Pugh are saying it, perhaps Marvel is turning more indie.
Pugh previously recalled the backlash she received from the indie film community after joining the MCU with 2021’s “Black Widow”; she later went on to appear in the Disney+ Marvel series “Hawkeye.” Now, it seems like “Thunderbolts” is the best of both worlds for the star.
“So many people in the indie film world were really pissed off at me. They were like, ‘Great, now she’s gone forever,’” Pugh told Time magazine. “And I’m like, no, I’m working as hard as I used to work. I’ve always done back-to-back movies. It’s just people are watching them now. You just have to be a bit more organized with your schedule.”
“Thunderbolts” will be released in theaters on May 2 from Walt Disney Studios and Marvel Studios.
