For those paying attention to the state of the film industry, there has been a lot of hand-wringing this year about the underperformance of the box office, a direct tie to the lack of films being released by the major theaters. Years ago, select months such as January or August were viewed as “dead spots” on the calendar, where studios avoided releasing blockbusters.
These days, those dead spots stretch for quarters.
The superhero genre saw a similar drought in 2025, and it appears to extend into 2026. Marvel Studios did release three films this year, but frontloaded all of them and left nothing for November, where they typically have a tentpole. And DC Films dropped one massive movie – James Gunn’s Superman – and now seem content to wait a full calendar year before delivering Supergirl to the masses on June 26, 2026.
Given the lack of output for the rest of this year (because Marvel TV moved Wonder Man to January), now’s as good a time as any to look back on the year that was, try to process what was achieved, and think about where the genre is going in 2026. With all of that in mind, I spent a ton of time thinking about the Best Superhero Movie Released in 2025. And I went with:
Yelena Belova looks troubled as she stands at the top of a skyscraper in ThunderboltsImage via Marvel Studios
Thunderbolts Is The Best Superhero Movie Released in 2025
And no, I’m not calling it The New Avengers. This ragtag band of super-powered rejects adopt the name Thunderbolts (adorably stolen from Yelena Belova’s West Chesapeake Valley youth soccer team) when they were banding together under the auspices of doing the right thing, no matter how difficult. That’s their “secret handshake” moniker, and I wish it would have stuck.
Thunderbolts is the most rewatchable superhero movie released in 2025. And it rewards the viewer on each return, where you can pick up subtle jokes, admire the kinetic streams of chemistry shared by the cast, or marvel (sorry) at Angela Catanzaro and Harry Yoon’s inspired editing. I laugh every time Red Guardian’s joyful bellow gets cut off after the team agrees to join Bucky on a mission to stop Val and save Bob.
Also, Florence Pugh gives arguably the best performance in any MCU movie outside of Josh Brolin’s work as Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War.
Thunderbolts doesn’t break new ground. But it does build something interesting on the MCU’s already established foundation. Teams like the Avengers and the Guardians of the Galaxy have come together before to fight a common foe. But the members of those teams weren’t as deeply flawed, as desperately broken, as Yelena’s band of misfit toys.
Which is why their third act finale is so much more compelling than anything we have seen in the MCU before. Instead of pyrotechnics and expensive visual effects, director Jake Schreier wisely relies on therapy sessions staged in “shame rooms” located in the Void. And they matter because we care about these characters. Some, like Sebastian Stan’s Bucky, because of the years we’ve spent watching him rally against his programming. And some, like David Harbour’s Red Guardian, because they are tragically hilarious.
Not that Thunderbolts is My Dinner With Andre in Tights. There’s more than enough choreographed action to keep comic audiences entertained. Hell, Sentry (Lewis Pullman) beats Bucky with his own artificial arm! That’s so metal. But it’s the character moments and humorous beats woven into every single fight scene that helps this ensemble to shine.
One month before Thunderbolts dropped, Marvel released what many fans dubbed “The A24 Cut” of a trailer for the film. I shared it above. And while the final feature didn’t fully embrace this indie-arthouse tone – which would have been revolutionary – it got much closer to this vibe than I anticipated, and it helped make Thunderbolts feel like the gust of fresh air the MCU needed (and continues to need).
What’s Next for The Thunderbolts?
I hope you don’t want to find out any time soon!
The post-credits scene attached to Thunderbolts was a tease for events that will happen in Avengers: Doomsday… which will open in theaters a a year from now.
We know that Valentina (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) is pulling the new team’s strings, and that they are using her headquarters, which used to be Avengers Tower. And from what we watched, they witnessed The Fantastic Four arriving onto Earth-616 from their alternate dimension of Earth-828.
Yelena, Bucky and their team will be part of a group effort to stop whatever it is that Doctor Doom is planning. But they’ll be competing for screen time against what we believe will be Sam Wilson’s Avengers (potentially consisting of Shang Chi, Falcon, Thor, and Ant-Man), the O.G. X-Men, the Fantastic Four, and a contingent of Wakandan warriors.
Also, Jake Schreier passed the directing baton to Joe and Anthony Russo, so their voice will be behind my merry misfits. I sincerely hope the Russos maintain a lot of the Thunderbolts’ unique flavor. We’ll find out a year from now.
The rest of 2025 had its share of highs and lows. James Gunn’s Superman was my other top contender for this slot, as I loved the imaginative new DC universe the writer-director constructed around a perfectly cast David Corenswet. The supporting players were rebelliously strange, and Superman successfully delivered something true to the roots of the character, but also different from other interpretations.
But when I think back on 2025 and the comic book movies it produced, it’ll be the off-kilter introduction of the Thunderbolts that rises to the top of the heap. This was the best superhero movie released this year.
Disagree? Let me know in the comments!
Release Date
May 2, 2025
Runtime
127 minutes
Director
Jake Schreier
Writers
Eric Pearson, Joanna Calo
Producers
Kevin Feige
Florence Pugh
Yelena Belova
Sebastian Stan
Bucky Barnes