Thunderbolts director says earlier version of the Marvel movie’s script was “kind of like a Die Hard thing”

With its focus on character dynamics and interpersonal relationships, new Marvel movie Thunderbolts* feels like the MCU’s most grounded and self-contained project in a very long time, especially after the multiversal mayhem of 2024’s Deadpool and Wolverine. And director Jake Schreier says the film felt like that from the off – in more ways than one.

In an early scene, several of the characters meet for the first time in a bit of a sticky situation: trapped in a vault, with no way out but each other’s help. “When [screenwriter] Eric Pearson came up with it with Brian Chapek, I think one of the original versions was kind of like a Die Hard thing,” Schreier tells GamesRadar+. “Or it was all going to take place in this vault, and getting out of it, which would have been a very cool thing. So I think in the DNA of the film, it was always a little bit more contained.”