Netflix just announced that it plans to release two Marvel series a year, following the success of its first joint venture ‘Daredevil’.  Rounding out 2015 will be ‘Jessica Jones’.  The two 2016 shows should be ‘Daredevil’ Season 2 and ‘Luke Cage’ with ‘Iron Fist’ and the team-up ‘The Defenders’ coming in 2017.  What comes after that?  The latest RUMOR is that a program starring the villains-turned-heroes team, ‘The Thunderbolts,’ is in the works!

Last year, ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ director James Gunn mentioned that he wanted to helm a ‘Thunderbolts’ movie and that Marvel President Kevin Feige stated that if ‘Guardians’ did well, Gunn could do whatever he wanted.  So does that mean that Gunn could in some way be connected to this rumored project?  We’ll have to wait and see as neither Marvel not Netflix has confirmed a ‘Thunderbolts’ project in any medium.

The original Thunderbolts struck in 1997 and were essentially the only good thing to come out of the ill-conceived ‘Heroes Reborn’ event in which the publishers biggest heroes vanished for a year.  In the place of The Avengers and Fantastic Four, arose a new team of champions, The Thunderbolts who were almost immediately embraced by the public.  But at the end of their first issues, readers were thrown for the ultimate loop when the new heroes unmasked to reveal that they were secretly some of The Avengers’ most dangerous foes in disguise.

The original team was led by Captain America’s foe Baron Zemo, who is already confirmed as being the major bad guy in ‘Captain America: Civil War’, played by Daniel Bruhl.  The other “heroes” were revealed to be the Fixer, The Beetle, Goliath, Moonstone and ScreamingMimi, who as Songbird, became the book’s breakout star.

Most recently, the group consisted of several antiheroes from Marvel lore, including Deadpool, The Punisher, Agent Venom, Elektra, Red Hulk and Ghost Rider.

Deadpool is obviously off-limits, as his film rights are held by Fox who are releasing his big screen movie next spring.  William Hurt’s Thaddeus Ross is rumored to play a part in ‘Captain America: Civil War’ and in the comics, he turned out to be the Red Hulk.  The Punisher will be a major player in ‘Daredevil’ Season 2, played by Jon Bernthal and Elodie Yung will portray Elektra.  And a team of Thunderbolts played a big part in the comic book ‘Civil War’ when they were sent to capture the recently unmasked Spider-Man.

It could be a perfect compliment to the existing and forthcoming Netflix shows, like an evil/antihero version of “The Defenders’ which will unite the four headlining Marvel/Netflix heroes.  The Thunderbolts could be introduced via these shows and the movies and then brought together as the Thunderbolts in their own series.

As of right now, the group could consist of Zemo, either as himself of American Citizen V, the guise he used at the beginning of the comic series, plus The Punisher, Elektra and maybe Red Hulk (although that may be too expensive).  Crossbones (Frank Grillo) and Batroc (Georges St-Pierre) are also possibilities.  Another a potential member would be David Tennant‘s Zebediah Killgrave, the main villain in ‘Jessica Jones’.  It’s very doubtful that stars like Mickey Rourke (Whiplash) and Tom Hiddleston (Loki) would be attainable for such a project.

Keep in mind, this is just a rumor right now.  But it could be an intriguing project.  What characters would you like to see on ‘Thunderbolts’ if it actually happens?

Source: Cinema Blend