Sebastian Stan didn’t get ‘Thunderbolts*’ joke about Bucky’s arm in dishwasher: ‘This is silly’

This article contains spoilers about Thunderbolts*… or do we call it *The New Avengers now?

One Thunderbolts* moment has had fans in a chokehold since the first footage originally debuted at 2024 Comic-Con. But the star at the center of the scene wasn’t in on the joke.

No, we’re not talking about Bob (Lewis Pullman) becoming Sentry/the Void. Or the title change. Or that post-credits scene shot for Avengers: Doomsday. Or even Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) punching Holt (Chris Bauer) in the throat.

No, it’s actually the moment when Bucky (Sebastian Stan) spills on his pristine congressman clothes while eating a chili dog in his kitchen. Disappointed in the mess he’s made, the Winter Soldier cleans himself up…by putting his Vibranium arm in the dishwasher.

When fans at Comic-Con first saw that scene in July, talk of it went viral before the trailer finally released online in September, giving everyone a glimpse at Bucky’s non-traditional cleaning routine. But Stan tells Entertainment Weekly that he actually tried to talk director Jake Schreier out of including that scene in that movie.

“I immediately said to Jake, ‘I don’t understand why this is funny. You do not need this. This is silly,'” Stan tells EW. “But Jake was like, ‘But maybe you could be eating something and then it can just go everywhere.’ And I go, ‘Really? That’s what’s going to [happen]?'”

While Stan wasn’t originally a fan of the moment, he’s since come around. “But I get it now,” he says. “I mean, it is funny, I have to admit.”

Stan isn’t the only Thunderbolts* star to not get their own joke in the movie. Wyatt Russell previously told EW that he didn’t realize his character John Walker a.k.a. U.S. Agent drops an ironic Captain America (Chris Evans) Easter egg during the opening vault breakout scene when he says, “On your left!” before smashing open the wall with his shield.

“Wait, what do I say?” Russell asked EW. “‘On your left?’ … When do I say, ‘On your left?’ Oh, oh, oh, when I smashed the … thingie.”

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Steve Rogers first said “on your left” in Captain America: The Winter Soldier while lapping Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) many times on an early morning run, and it was later referenced when Sam and the rest of the blipped Avengers returned during the climactic battle in Avengers: Endgame. While Russell claimed that his line is not a Captain America Easter egg, he revealed that the director is the one who added it to the movie much later, after they filmed the vault scene.

“That was a line I didn’t want to say,” Russell admitted. “Jake felt like we needed something to say in ADR. That was an ADR-ed line. That is not connected at all. It was just something to fill a void.”

Thunderbolts* is now playing in theaters.