Thunderbolts release date shifts due to Fantastic Four Valentine's Day announcement

A logo for Thunderbolts
(Image credit: Marvel Studios)

Marvel Studios has switched the release dates of two of its biggest 2025 movies, moving up Thunderbolts two months and pushing Fantastic Four back. 

Following Marvel's Valentine’s Day Fantastic Four announcement, it has been revealed that Thunderbolts will now be released on May 2, 2025, instead of its previous date of July 25, 2025. In turn, Fantastic Four will now be released on July 25, 2025, losing its May slot to the anti-hero movie. 

Alongside the release dates, Marvel has also confirmed Fantastic Four’s official cast via the studio's Twitter account. The vintage-looking illustration shows The Last of Us’ Pedro Pascal as Reed Richards (Mr. Fantastic), Napoleon’s Vanessa Kirby as Susan 'Sue' Storm Richards (Invisible Woman), The Bear’s Ebon Moss-Bachrach as Benjamin Grimm (The Thing) and Stranger Things’ Joseph Quinn as Johnny Storm (The Human Torch), all making up our new Fantastic Four. Marvel is keeping the storyline under wraps for now, but the retro poster and inclusion of a 1963 copy of Life Magazine, tells us that the upcoming movie may be set in the ’60s. 

As for Thunderbolts, very little is known about the movie at this point other than The Thunderbolts are a group of MCU antiheroes rising in a world without The Avengers. Sebastian Stan reprises his role as Bucky Barnes, and Wyatt Russell as John Walker from The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. The cast also includes Florence Pugh, David Harbour, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Harrison Ford (who is replacing William Hurt as Thaddeus Ross), and The Bear's Ayo Edebiri. 

Both movies are set to release in 2025 as a part of Marvel’s Phase 6.

As of now Thunderbolts is set to hit theatres on May 2, 2025, and Fantastic Four on July 25, 2025. While you wait, stay up to date with the MCU with our guide on how to watch Marvel movies in order, and make sure to mark your calendars with all of the upcoming Marvel movies and TV shows on the way in 2024 and beyond.   

Editorial Associate, GamesRadar+

I am an Entertainment Writer here at GamesRadar+, covering TV and film for SFX and Total Film online. I have a Bachelors Degree in Media Production and Journalism and a Masters in Fashion Journalism from UAL. In the past I have written for local UK and US newspaper outlets such as the Portland Tribune and York Mix and worked in communications, before focusing on film and entertainment writing. I am a HUGE horror fan and in 2022 I created my very own single issue feminist horror magazine.  

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