Marvel marks 85 years with Thunderbolts, Daredevil, Red Hulk first looks (exclusive)

It's been a marvelous 85 years for a certain superhero entertainment empire. The first issue of Marvel Comics, originally branded Timely Comics, launched on Aug. 31, 1939, and went on to introduce the likes of Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, the X-Men, and the Fantastic Four to an eager flock of comic book readers. Decades later, the Marvel name has a Hollywood studio that surpassed $31 billion at the global box office from 34 films based on those comic properties, as well as a burgeoning television slate on streaming service Disney+.

To mark the anniversary, Entertainment Weekly can exclusively reveal a new Marvel spot, highlighting its illustrious past and promising future with official first looks at upcoming titles like Thunderbolts*, Captain America: Brave New World, Daredevil: Born Again, and Ironheart.

Attendees of this year's San Diego Comic-Con and Disney's D23 fan convention caught new looks at these titles. But Thursday's teaser marks the official reveal of some of those sneak peeks to the wider world — apart from leaks on social media.

These looks include the first public reveal of Thunderbolts*, featuring the return of Florence Pugh as former Black Widow assassin Yelena Belova, Sebastian Stan as the Winter Soldier/Bucky Barnes, Wyatt Russell as one-time Captain America John Walker, Hannah John-Kamen as Ava Starr/Ghost, and David Harbour as Red Guardian/Alexei Shostakov. Fans can also fawn over glimpses of Charlie Cox's Matt Murdock back in his signature red Daredevil uniform for Disney+ series Daredevil: Born Again, Dominique Thorne's Riri Williams in her Ironheart mech suit for her own superhero show, and the clearest look yet at Harrison Ford's Red Hulk transformation in Captain America: Brave New World.

"I often look back on the early '60s in the famous Marvel bullpen with Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, and Steve Ditko creating Spider-Man, the Avengers, the X-Men, and the Fantastic Four," Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige says in the 85th-anniversary spot, referring to the original comic creators. "House of ideas. It's called that for a reason."

Marvel prominently pays tribute to Lee in particular with the spot, which also gives extended time to Deadpool & Wolverine, the most recent Marvel Studios release which quickly became the highest-grossing R-rated movie of all time. The film marks a new era for Marvel Studios as it officially welcomes characters from the X-Men and Fantastic Four (once owned by Fox) into Disney's Marvel Cinematic Universe. That also includes X-Men '97, the sequel to the 1990s cartoon that is now Emmy nominated for Best Animated Program.

Marvel officially celebrates the big 8-5 this Saturday, Aug. 31, but activities are already in motion. This past month saw the release of special collectible homage variant covers and a trade collection with every Marvel comic from August 1961. Wednesday brought the release of the Marvel 85th Anniversary Special Giant-Sized One Shot, featuring an array of comic creators writing new stories in commemoration of Marvel's legacy. The Marvel Studios’ Infinity Saga Concert Experience at the Hollywood Bowl will also play out this Friday and Saturday, while special product drops are planned, including a Kith collaboration and Hasbro Legends 85th-anniversary figures.

Alongside the anniversary spot, EW can reveal celebratory video messages from the stars of Daredevil: Born Again (Cox, Deborah Ann Woll, Elden Henson), Captain America: Brave New World (Anthony Mackie), and Ironheart (Dominique Thorne, Anthony Ramos, Alden Ehrenreich, Regan Aliyah, Lyric Ross).

The fourth Cap movie is set for a premiere on Feb. 14, 2025. Mackie stars as Sam Wilson, who picks up the mantle of Captain America and becomes embroiled in an international incident involving brainwashed Super Soldiers. Ford takes over the role of President Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross from the late William Hurt, and that character will fulfill his comic-book destiny by becoming the Red Hulk. Giancarlo Esposito also arrives as Sidewinder, the leader of the villainous organization known as the Serpent Society, and Tim Blake Nelson will reprise his Samuel Sterns role from The Incredible Hulk.

Then comes Daredevil: Born Again, dropping on Disney+ sometime this coming March. Cox, Woll, Henson, Vincent D'Onofrio, and Jon Bernthal all reprise their roles from the previous Netflix Daredevil series for a new story set in the MCU.

Directed by Jake Schreier, Thunderbolts* (that asterisk is very much included in the official title) then releases on May 2, 2025, bringing together a group of heroes and anti-heroes alike under the direction of Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Contessa Valentina Allegra de la Fontaine... or just Val for short.

Pugh told EW that she and Harbour "squeezed as much as we could out of the time that we had together" in Black Widow for the Yelena-Alexei relationship. "Knowing that we were both coming back to do any version of a second movie, there was no way that we couldn’t jump into it further and go where these people are in the state of their lives right now," she said.

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Ironheart is also set for release in 2025, though a premiere date has not been revealed. "Once this show begins, we're definitely seeing the same girl that we got introduced to [in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever], but this time around, we're getting a deeper dive," Thorne teased to EW. "We're getting to kind of understand the things that created the woman that we got a preview of. But we're also seeing how those events are changing the way that she's viewing her whole schtick."

Watch the new Marvel teaser above, and see EW's full interview with the Thunderbolts* cast from Comic-Con below.