Entertainment Weekly has officially begun its “2025 Preview” series, offering us new looks at Marvel Studios’ Thunderbolts* and Daredevil: Born Again, as well as Sony‘s Karate Kid: Legends.
Thunderbolts*
The Thunderbolts* images are above. As you can see, Julia Louis-Dreyfus‘ Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine is set to have arguably her biggest role yet in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
“This movie’s a real opportunity for me to really explore the Val character. You really get to know what she’s made of, and even a lot of her backstory. She’s in it to win it,” Louis-Dreyfus told EW. “You’re going to see her entire plan unfold. It has a lot of mystery to it and there’s some twists and turns that you don’t see coming, which are the best kind. There’s a lot of suspense, which is very groovy.”
Daredevil: Born Again
Daredevil: Born Again will basically be the long-awaited Season 4 of the original Netflix series, even though it’s an entirely new show. “It had been conceived as more of a legal procedural, and we really brought it back towards an action-based New York crime story,” showrunner Dario Scardapane told EW. “The real trick was to have the DNA of the old Netflix show, but then push it forward into something very new.”
Charlie Cox added that he and Vincent D’Onofrio fought hard to make sure the show wasn’t sanitized for Disney+, stating:
“The thing that we kept talking about was, this show has had the success that it’s had and has appealed to a very specific demographic because it’s one of the few superhero shows that is so dark and sinister at times. Vincent and I both felt like if you lose that, you are at risk of losing the identity of our show. So we really pushed for the show to remain geared towards an older audience and not dumbed down to kind of capture a wider net of people. I think in some ways it’s even darker than a lot of the stuff we’ve done in the past”
Karate Kid: Legends
Set after the events of Cobra Kai, Karate Kid: Legends retroactively established the 2010 reboot starring Jackie Chan as existing within the Miyagiverse (a term coined by the Cobra Kai creators to mean any Karate Kid project featuring Mr. Miyagi). As for how the movie is going to get around bringing together these two distinct Karate Kid timelines, director Jonathan Entwistle shared the following with EW, “Without giving too much away, I can say that Mr. Han and Mr. Miyagi are the connection to Daniel. The Han family and the Miyagi family are connected all the way back to the old times. And there is a mention of this within the Karate Kid movie canon for those people who want to go looking for it.”
For the unfamiliar, this is what Karate Kid: Legends is about: “When a new friend needs his help, Li Fong (Ben Wang) enters a karate competition — but his skills alone aren’t enough. Li’s kung fu teacher Mr. Han (Jackie Chan) enlists original Karate Kid Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) for help, and Li learns a new way to fight, merging their two styles into one for the ultimate martial arts showdown.”
Do these first look images get you excited?
