Summary

Thunderbolts* needs to impress post-Captain America flop for a successful transition to The Fantastic Four.
The cast has been sharing stories, with Florence Pugh begging to leap off a 2,000-foot-tall building in Malaysia.
Marvel Studios may be changing up the formula for production after audience fatigue post-Endgame.

Marvel Studios' Thunderbolts* is mere weeks away from release, which means behind-the-scenes stories are coming out left and right. The latest doozy involves a famous star, the second-tallest building in the world, and Kevin Feige's email address.

After the relative thud Captain America: Brave New World made at the worldwide box office, Thunderbolts* needs to reset audience expectations before The Fantastic Four: First Steps hits theatres later this year. Thankfully for Marvel Studios, the buzz around Thunderbolts* is much more positive than it was for the fourth Captain America film. Test screenings have apparently been going well, internet reaction to released footage has been trending in the right direction, and fan speculation about certain characters has been running rampant in recent weeks. For all intents and purposes, it seems like Marvel Studios is back in its groove with this one. It also helps that the affable cast that stars in the film has been happy to share stories about production leading up to release.

New Thunderbolts* Teaser Showcases The Team Having A Bit Of 'Therapy'

The Avengers aren't walking through the door to save the day, so the Thunderbolts* need to buck up and get it done.

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By Tyler Mitchell

Six members of the Thunderbolts* cast—Florence Pugh, David Harbour, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Hannah John-Kamen, Wyatt Russell, and Geraldine Viswanathan—sat down with Fandango earlier this week for an interview to promote the upcoming film. During the sit-down, Pugh went into detail about a crazy stunt she did for the film: leaping off of a 2,227-foot-tall building in Malaysia. "...[T]hey were like, ‘Yeah, we don’t think it’s gonna happen, it’s just gonna be a crazy insurance ordeal, and obviously we’re not going to throw FP off the second-tallest building in the world,’" Pugh began. Of course, Florence Pugh is Florence Pugh, and she wanted to do that wild stunt... And she let Marvel Studios head honcho Kevin Feige hear about it.

“I was like, ‘What the fuck, of course we are. We have to do that!’ So I was being a sassy Karen just emailing Kevin and being like, ‘Kevin, this is going to do wonders for the press tour, we have to do this!’”

At The End Of The Day, Florence Pugh Wanted To Jump Off A Tall Building For Thunderbolts*, You Guys

Actors Tend To Get What They Want In Hollywood

So, yes, Florence Pugh did indeed jump off of a building that stands over 2,000 feet tall for Thunderbolts*. It seems Pugh has been studying at the Tom Cruise school of acting, where doing a bonkers stunt during filming gives you plenty of ammo for the advertising campaign leading up to release. The whole ordeal seems pretty antithetical to Marvel's usual schtick of doing almost everything they can on studio sets in front of green or blue screens. As audiences have seemingly gotten more and more exhausted with each Marvel release since Avengers: Endgame, perhaps it's not a bad idea for the House of Ideas to switch things up a bit.

Pugh went on to mention that she "fell asleep for three hours" after shooting the intense stunt. To be fair, three hours seems like it wouldn't be enough time to recover from that kind of existential shock to the system. Yes, Pugh was harnessed in and technically only fell a few stories before cables stopped her descent, but being up 2,000+ feet in the air is enough to put fear into the most ardent thrill-seekers. Here's hoping the awesome stunt work translates to an awesome moment onscreen.

Thunderbolts* is set to be released in theatres on May 2nd.

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