Thunderbolts* runtime revealed; next MCU movie just over 2 hours (2025)

The official runtime of Marvel’s Thunderbolts* has been unveiled, with the next installment in the MCU clocking in at 127 minutes.

Considering Marvel has been pulling back on their runtimes as of late, it’s not too surprising that Thunderbolts* is just over two hours. That’s definitely a lot more comforting than hearing it would reach the two and a half hours that comic book movies long felt was necessary. This runtime is actually right around the franchise’s average.

Knowing now that Thunderbolts* is around that two hour mark, the focus can now be put on the actual quality. Marvel has been hitting us hard with trailers, featurettes and posters as of late, but there’s still a bit of a divide between moviegoers. On one side, yeah, Thunderbolts* looks like a lot of fun, the sort that would get butts in seats and be another fringe property fans could get behind (not unlike Guardians of the Galaxy); on the other, we still yearn for the days when there were two MCU movies per year at max. But by and large the studio has been awfully comfortable at around three releases, with 2025 hitting that number through Brave New World, this and July’s The Fantastic Four: First Steps. We could debate “superhero fatigue” if we wanted, but we need to have something to truly look forward to.

So, will Thunderbolts* be that something? Right now it’s tracking a $70 million opening weekend, which would put it around Eternals and Shang-Chi territory. We’ll see how moviegoers take it to once it opens on May 2nd.

As per Marvel, Thunderbolts* “assembles an unconventional team of antiheroes — Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), Red Guardian (David Harbour), Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko), and John Walker (Wyatt Russell). After finding themselves ensnared in a death trap set by Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), these disillusioned castoffs must embark on a dangerous mission that will force them to confront the darkest corners of their pasts. Will this dysfunctional group tear themselves apart, or find redemption and unite as something much more before it’s too late?”

How do you think Thunderbolts* looks? Will you be checking it out on opening weekend?