Thunderbolts*

“Thunderbolts*” Chaos Report: Scorpions, Staple Guns & Secret Romances Rock Marvel’s Messiest Movie

The New Avengers might be broken in the MCU, but off-screen the Thunderbolts were busy battling scorpions, legal drama, and a box office beatdown. Let’s rummage through the wreckage, shall we?

On-Set Drama: Blood, Bugs & “We’re Unhinged”

• Florence Pugh literally risked life and limb for this movie. During a desert shoot, she was lying on the ground for a scene, got up… and was calmly told, “There was a scorpion on your leg.” It had been climbing up her combat boot the whole time. “Thank god I was wearing those combat boots,” she said, still shaken — while Julia Louis-Dreyfus heard this in real time and was understandably horrified .
• As soon as the scorpion was removed? Production told them to “reset, reset, get back down there,” according to Hannah John-Kamen. The crew insisted “the scorpions are gone,” and the cast basically went: sure, Jan ^[2].
• Wyatt Russell took things even further, splitting his head open during a stunt. David Harbour had just warned the setup was dangerous — they had to duck under a two-by-four while sprinting — when he heard Russell go down and saw “blood… just spewing everywhere” ^[2].
• Russell was rushed to the hospital, got stapled up in his hairline, and came right back. “Three inches lower and I would have been the scar guy for the rest of my life… would have been really good for the career,” he joked ^[2]. Pugh summed up the whole vibe: “Lots of adrenaline, running through holes that were too tight for us… We’re unhinged!” ^[2]

Scandals & Credit-Drama: Scarlett Says ‘Take My Name Off’

• In one of the most eyebrow-raising Marvel moments post-lawsuit, Scarlett Johansson revealed she asked Marvel to remove her executive producer credit from *Thunderbolts**. Her reason? Brutally simple: “I asked to have my credit removed because I wasn’t involved” .
• The EP credit seems to have been more of a contractual leftover from her Black Widow era than a sign she was actually steering the ship, and Johansson did not want to look like she was taking credit for a movie she didn’t touch ^[1].
• David Harbour even teased her about it: he called her “the seventh Thunderbolt” and congratulated her on being an EP, only for her to publicly nope out of the title ^[1]. It’s the politest Marvel divorce you’ll ever see.

Romance Rumors: Sentry & The Supermodel

• While his character Bob is drowning in trauma on-screen, Lewis Pullman was dodging a very different kind of drama on the red carpet: questions about rumored girlfriend Kaia Gerber.
• At the *Thunderbolts** premiere, when asked about “a certain brunette,” Pullman shut it down with, “No, I don’t have a date tonight. My family’s my date,” and then literally backed away from the mic, pivoting into, “We’re all just lucky to be here on the carpet… looking forward to Thunderbolts” .
• Off the carpet, however, the receipts pile up: the pair had already sparked dating rumors after being spotted getting cozy at Pullman’s birthday dinner in January. Eyewitnesses say they were “holding hands and very affectionate” and “arrived and left together” ^[3].
• So while Marvel fans were shipping Bob and Yelena, the real-life crossover everyone was clocking was Sentry & The Supermodel.

Leaks, Secrets & Marvel’s Rule-Breaking Queen

• Florence Pugh didn’t just risk scorpions — she also risked the wrath of Marvel Security. She snuck her phone on set and posted a full behind-the-scenes tour while *Thunderbolts** was filming, something Marvel usually bans with the fury of a thousand NDAs.
• “I was whisked off to Atlanta to go and shoot a movie that I’m not really allowed to talk much about,” she told fans, walking from a trailer literally labeled “Yelena” toward set. “But I can show you some things, sneakily, as long as you don’t tell anyone” .
• She showed off Yelena’s new costume, industrial sets, and crew — with director Jake Schreier playing the part of faux-disapproving Marvel dad, pretending to scold her for revealing too much ^[4].
• Between that and her later reveal that they even shot fake footage to protect the New Avengers twist (filming decoy scenes so the real title move wouldn’t leak), Pugh has quietly become Marvel’s most charming security breach ^[4].

Casting Shakeups & Rumored Clashes

• Before cameras rolled, *Thunderbolts** went through a mini identity crisis: Steven Yeun and Ayo Edebiri both exited due to scheduling chaos, reportedly tied to strike-related delays. Geraldine Viswanathan and Lewis Pullman stepped in, giving the team an unexpected reshuffle midway through the hype cycle .
• In the wider Marvel rumorverse, there were claims of a “bust up” between Wyatt Russell and David Harbour while working on Avengers: Doomsday, with one leak account alleging an on-set altercation between the two Thunderbolts alums . Another commentator later clarified those weren’t actually the actors involved, but the rumor had already sprinted through fandom like Quicksilver on Red Bull ^[6].

Box Office Blues: When Great Reviews Still Mean ‘Flop’

• Despite strong reviews, *Thunderbolts** face-planted financially by Marvel standards. Variety reports it made about $371 million globally, on a reported $180 million production budget plus roughly $100 million in marketing — meaning it needed around $425 million just to break even .
• Translation: the MCU’s big antihero team-up lost millions for Disney and became one of the lowest-grossing entries in the entire franchise ^[8]. Cue endless think pieces, panicked YouTube rants, and a whole lot of “Is Marvel over?” thumbnails.