My Pitch for Marvel's Thunderbolts 

Hot take: Nando literally wrote the whole pitch just to get Justin Hammer back in the game.

Nando: "Taskmaster and Bucky don't make sense for this team." Feige: "And I took that personally."

Marvel has to appreciate Nando's professionalism in agreeing to call the movie Thunderbolts instead of Justin Hammer: The Movie, like he originally wanted.

The scene where Justin Hammer gives everyone their hero personas was pure gold, really hope some version of it ends up in the final movie.

"Don't blame me, blame society....this guy gets it" How can you distill the essence of the Hammer so casually ?

The official Thunderbolts roster is so lackluster compared to this. I want to see this version of Thunderbolts!

A Thunderbolt movie after Civil War would been cool. Ross would have to pick up the pieces after the Avengers fall out. The villians would also have to register after being caught.

I love the little flourishes you put in your writing. Calling Yelene "little Miss Romanov" was the most Justin Hammer thing ever. I can't imagine the amount of thought that goes into your pitches.

Nando the joke of Hammer calling Zemo “Barry” is so good

Nando: What does Taskmaster have that we don't already have in Zemo, Walker, or Yelena? Marvel: ...so, how about we add some more super soldiers?

I can overlook Marvel’s 6 person team rule, but I can’t overlook the distinct lack of Monsters on the team. Every superhero team needs some kind of creature.

Nando's Justin Hammer is always a treat and absolutely captures Sam Rockwell, love it, I'm gonna need Hammer Cameos - Hammeos? In every pitch from here on out.

Nando: "Taskmaster and Bucky don't make sense for this team." Kevin Feige: *Puts Bucky and Taskmaster in the front of the team*

Never before have I wished more that one of your pitches was the actual thing because the real roster is just...dang.

You really gotta admire Nando's determination to put Justin Hammer in everything he possibly can

I like the idea of the Masters of Evil being the villains for the Thunderbolts, with members from both teams flipping sides midway through the film.

I’m glad that you included Songbird in this, I think she’s really cool and has a lot of potential.

This feels like a better pitch for a show than a movie. I'm seeing Eternals pacing issues. But I love it. The Luke Cage addition is perfect.

The inclusion of Luke Cage is great. I'd love a single line to Justin Hammer about his tech that nearly killed Luke.

“This guy gets it.” *cuts to Luke Cage* I’m dead.

I think it’s a mistake not having Atlas on the team, especially if he has the personality and backstory you’ve given him for this pitch. Imagine Zemo, a man who strongly discriminates against superhumans getting along with a superhuman who believes himself to be a danger to people around him. The potential for character growth there is undeniable.

Better than the official lineup just for having Zemo

I like how D23 confirmed the leader was going to be returning to the mcu in captain America new world order.

As expected this lineup is better than the one we’re actually getting and it was just a day early

I really hope they stick to the "faking themselves being heroes" bit if only so that we can get some more real costumes in the MCU. Plus, sticking some backstory for Citizen V in there tickles my little Golden Age fanboy heart. I do think that backstory shouldn't make the original Citizen V sound like such a chump though, maybe give him some reason to be remembered, you know what I mean?

Ghost would have to have been snapped to survive the 5 year time gap, as her condition was being treated by Hank Pym. If that happened, then she would be confused when she returned, and that would allow her to be captured.

Nando submitted his report too late and they had to go with the interns pitch instead. Sad to see 😞

Nando: I know this is really off topic but My wife and I did a long binge into your videos. We want to share our idea. Our pitch: Dr Strange 2 did not need America Chavez or the illuminati, it needed....Hawkeye. 1. Hawkeye would of contrast nicely with all the magic and dimensions 2. Hawkeye has a history with Wanda. Connecting with her in age of ultron and in endgame 3. Hawkeye can talk to wanda of giving into the grief and rage of loss with his time as Ronin 4. Hawkeye was a father who lost a family and wanda is a mom who lost one. 5. Losing chavez and illumanit will make the movie less jumbled and have more poignant character development 6. Hawkeye would humble dr strange sometimes you dont need magic to save the world 7. Side note it would be great if getting clint was wong's idea further proving why wong is the sorcerer Supreme. Would love your opinion

I love how much Nando adores Hammer

Poor timing on Nando’s part, the thunderbolts roster was just shown off… no Justin hammer or Zemo😢 Plus you totally nailed the leader coming back but for the wrong movie which is kinda crazy

Nando pitches Thunderbolts. “A surprise to be sure, but, a welcome one.”

I love how you made Justin Hammer responsible for all there alter identities 😂

I love the production quality on these videos man. Always love these pitches ever since the antman and the wasp and the antman pitch

Imagine Justin Hammer makes an abomination buster, but it’s so terrible and clunky and needs to be plugged in to do basic actions

After seeing the L cast for the Thunderbolts at D23… (Seriously, Task Master?) I will say NANDO V Movies is the hero we don’t deserve but the hero we need to save the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

I was grinning ear to ear when I figured out you were gearing up for an avengers-like title card drop mid-movie. Love this

I really dig this idea, however I really wanna see Abomination in action again! We can even have a homage to the "Reservoir Dogs" scene when all the team walk in slow motion, wearing suits, 70's music on background, and of course, Mr. Tim Roth.

You can tell they had to come up with a new cast real last minute after he uploaded this

Can't believe they rewrote your script

23:00 saying bullseye is just a sharpshooter is really underselling his abilities

Love this pitch Nando! Not to nitpick, unlike your podcast mostly nitpicking, but just FYI, DC calls them metahumans, whereas MCU has been calling them superhumans/enhanced individuals

Depending on how the new Daredevil series plays out it would be interesting to see Luke cage in the the Thunderbolts. I like the comic moment where he talks about how he’s been on ever superhero team there is and even fought Doom.

Wow a marvel pitch from Nando featuring Justin Hammer? I never would've guessed.

Fantastic take altho i think the starting scene needs a little tweek the way you explained it, it portrays as Ghost being unnecessarily obstinate as it looks like Zemo could've done a better job (by implication not by facts as Ghost did get the job done). Wouldn't change it tho but I would add a dialogue between them a little later where Zemo dismisses Ghost because she is a meta again and she points out to him that Zemo's flaw is that he only sees people for the powers they have or dont have. This is why he didn't trust her to get the job done because he thought she could only phase through walls when in fact she is an expert operative capable of hacking, manipulating systems etc without her powers. This way you rationalise her not following his instruction and you give Zemo some development when he realises that metahumans are not just their powers, therefore making him an even better leader for the Thunderbolts.

It would be absolutely hilarious to see Val approach Justin about the team and before she can even pitch it to him he says yes.

Something about Nando playing the role of Hammer really works. He just nails it

Tis good, but there was a thing which nando said part way through which got me thinking how it could be even more different than the standard "suicide squad but for marvel" idea, maybe the point of (or the twist of) the movie is that Zemo is the leader, but he only accepts it sp that he can get the metahuman members of the team killed on the mission. Like he concocts a plan where he figures out exactly at which part each member becomes fully expendable and gets them killed in a way which looks like an accident. And like the fact that he and ghost get a scene at the start and it could come down to just them left at the end, and he just shoots her, and we get a scene revealing all the ways he manipulated the situations to get the rest killed. It's a bit darker, and sacrificing character development for concept but think it could be an interesting way to take it to shake it up a bit. Would further improve his image of tactical genius as well when he manages to complete the mission and successfully destroy the team as well.

The way Nando changes voices without really changing... chills...

"Bucky would be too repetitive" This aged badly

It's so funny watching this after the team has been announced - he's right for a lot of characters but not all of them. It's especially interesting how much of the pitch revolves around Zemo, as he's not a part of the team. Maybe he'll be a villain, which would be unexpected in some ways but fun, probably.

This did not age well. They literally revealed the Thunderbolts line up the next day lol Still a great pitch of course Mr. Nando!

Sad to see that in under 24 hours The Thunderbolts lineup isn’t like this and The Leader is being used as the villain of another moviw

Favorite RU-vid channel BY FAR. The quality of your content and writing is so astounding

Wow, this roster and idea is WAY better than what we’re getting.

This was such a hoot to imagine, it's a shame none of this will transpire.

The leader you say… *captain America 4 enters the chat*

In the comics Zemo is the only Thunderbolt that doesn't become a hero so maybe they will adapt that in the MCU? (also your cast is better than the official one)

This team is sounding a lot better than the actual team. In fact if Kevin’s watching this he better change it to this team

Welp... baron zemo isn’t on thunderbolts lineup apparently. (May still be in the movie someway) And ‘the leader’ is going to be in captain America new world order. So yea..

i wanna watch this more than the actual thunderbolts. think we can get a full plot?

Very entertaining, interesting pitch. Curious how you feel about what was actually announced/unveiled.

Hmm... I disagree on the lineup in a couple ways. I think Abomination's appearance in She-Hulk is to set him up to be on the team. They keep reminding the audience he exists because they plan to use him. I predict the last episode of SH will have Val recruiting Blonsky in the post credits scene. Also I think having Hammer and the Tinkerer is just redundant. TWO genius weapons designers who have mostly been comedic characters? Just keep Hammer. I do love the idea of Screaming Mimi, and especially who you cast to play her.

The Thunderbolts cast includes Florence Pugh as Yelena Belova, David Harbour as Red Guardian, and Wyatt Russell as U.S. Agent. Olga Kurylenko’s Taskmaster and Hannah John-Kamen’s Ghost will also be on the team. Rounding out the Thunderbolts is Sebastian Stan’s Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier. Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, as played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus, will manage the team.

This actually sounds pretty good, I’d actually watch this. Also you nailed the tones of Zemo, Leader, and Hammer.

jesus man. this pitch had me on the edge of my seat!! the intros the dialogue, specifically the jokes and banter... pitch perfect (pun intended)

It is a shame that this video was near instantly outdated due to the D23 reveal of the Thunderbolts line up and the fact that the Leader is going to be In Cap4, this was quite an interesting pitch, I wouldn't have minded this being the actual movie.

Love to see Carl Creel back, Agents of SHIELD references go hard!

Well, after D23, some people could say that this aged like milk... All I'd say is, while I'm content with what we're getting, I hope we get something as close to this as possible...

Marvel revealing the lamest possible Thunderbolts lineup a week after this video is so funny Nando cooks a team with a really nice mix different abilities and personalities, and then Marvel comes out with - Ghost - Black Widow 2.0 - Hydra’s Captain America - Russia’s Captain America - America’s Captain America - Someone who can copy any ability but mostly Captain America

Marvel, Kevin Fiege, DC, Zaslov…someone give this man a writing job. Well done Nando. 👏

How. HOW! How is Zemo not a main member of the team? It's unbelievable.

Pitch a Midnight Sons movie and a reboot for the Inhumans as a movie

I flat out LOVE that you included Erik Josten just so you could swap out Power Man for Power Man.

Recast William hurt? You…. You mean you can do that? I thought recasting a character because the actor died was impossible.

i like your idea way more than what Feige has cooking.

I love that you really take the time to write out character moments other people would be a lot less thought out about it and it really makes the difference. Keep it up my dude.

From the future, and your team is infinitly better. We get 2 Assassins, 3 super Soldiers, and ghost. This is easily the least diverse team from a power/dynamic standpoint and is the least imaginative

My ideal lineup (before watching the pitch), this is based on what we've seen in the MCU so far and closer to the Dark Avengers in concept but taking the Thunderbolts name: U.S. Agent (from Falcon and the Winter Soldier) Yelena Belova (from Black Widow and Hawkeye) Justin Hammer (from Iron Man 2) Abomination (from Hulk, Shang Chi, and She-Hulk) Bullseye (from Daredevil) Vision (from WandaVision) Black Ant (a newly introduced character, Eric O'Grady) OR Atlas (also a newly introduced character, to make it closer to the original Thunderbolts lineup) Moonstone (another newly introduced character, but it depends on The Marvels movie) You really convinced me with adding Baron Zemo, Ghost, Atlas and/or Luke Cage. Edit: after watching She-Hulk, Abomination might seem like a bad choice but I think Valentina can still pull some strings to recruit him. And I forgot to add Scorpion as a stand in for Spider-Man, it can be a nod to his debut in the comics when he was hired by J. Jonah Jameson but this time, it would be Valentina. After looking at the D23 Thunderbolts lineup, lol it's definitely something.

@27:40. “Captain Yemen” That made my week hahaha thank you and a hat tip

Unfortunately, there was no gamma bomb experiment in the MCU. The experiment that created the Hulk was a super soldier experiment involving strapping Banner down to a chair.

It's an interesting concept, I pretty much agree with the lineup and premise. Also, great addition with Luke Cage, wouldn't have initially thought of adding him in due to his more heroic side, but the more I think about it the more it works, he is a Hero for Hire after all, and he and Jessica could have Danielle at this point. If I were to make changes to it I'd move Hammer from someone in the field to more of a behind the scenes sort of person, like rather than him being out with the team, he works with the Tinkerer to build stuff, but also helps fund different things, like he can pay off people to make the mission go easier or whatever. I also like the addition of Creel, though IIRC he died in Agents of Shield Season 5 after being absorbed into Graviton, which happened shortly before the Snap (Season 5 literally has Thanos's invasion of Earth happening in the background for the last couple episodes) so he wouldn't really be available to use for this, if you want the "Metal Man" thing still (and honestly where I thought you were going), an argument could be made for it being Colossus who is working for the Winter Guard at this point in time as the X-Men haven't formed yet (perhaps have it explained that with the Avengers disbanded and the collapse of the Red Room and the Widow program the Russian government wanted to have their own Avengers that they controlled, and so they get Red Guardian back and have like Colossus and Ursa on the team and whoever else, maybe have it be useful for a sort of reunion between Yelena and Red Guardian, who last we knew she hasn't seen in 9 years since the end of Black Widow, perhaps another thing factoring into her potential face turn and joining the Young Avengers), and it would be a way to continue to get more Mutants into the MCU. Aside from that though, I do think Abomination could be added to the team, sure Blonsky seems reformed, but there does seem to still be more going on with him that we don't yet know, at least to me there does.

I like the idea, especially the part where Hammer name everyone, that was so funny ahahhha, he could be the funny guy in this movie.... eventough the opening before "Thunderbolt" title look 2016 suicide squad-ish, but its okay the character that being recruited is different and not all of them are prisoners... and I hoped the movie could be beginners friendly since there is a lot of characters you didn't familiar with (unless you are a marvel fans) like short introductions but got the idea of their arc/original. Their ability could be introduced along they way like the Eternals-type... and the idea of creating bulk of hulks kind of along the way with Marvel's theme of bigger and space-oriented adventure-ish..

These pitch videos are amazing. Can't wait for the next one

“What are you, Captain Yemen now?” ~Helmut Zemo

Glad I’m not the only one that thinks She Hulk has been crazy fun. Seems all I see about it is negativity. Reminds me of John Byrne’s run, which I dig.

A nice addition to the team would be bullseye played by Wilson Bethel

I thought a lot of the charm of the "villains in disguise" shtick was that all of them are pretending to be existing superheroes, which might not work in the MCU since most of the mirror match villains end up dying. I think the big thing to keep this from being diet Suicide Squad is to lean into these all being established villains. Even if the team lineup doesn't resemble any of the comic incarnations that much, I'd focus in on the highest-profile villains who survived their movies (however many that is, I've lost track) and use them as my starting point.

The Justin hammer part was hilarious loved 3very minute of it giving them silly names.🤣

Or…. Just hear me out…. Make it a team of super soldiers with absolutely no versatility…. Boom! Marvel studios will eat that up.

Who else is here after the real lineup was announced at D23 😅

“What, so were some kind of thunderbolts” -Zemo

Man I love your pitch

Its funny how nando thought the winter solider wouldn't make sense on the team. Yet now after seeing D23 we know he actually will be on the team.

Trish Walker aka Hellcat from Jessica jones should definitely also be in The Thunderbolts alongside a few other Villains from the Netflix shows 😬

"Creel and Sterns" sounds like a music duo lol

While I do absolutely love this pitch, there's one thing that really irks me: Crusher Creel actually died in Agents of SHIELD. Whether the show and its continuity remains canon is still up in the air, but if it is, I don't think the Absorbing Man (or at least Carl) will show up in The Thunderbolts. Plus wouldn't it be confusing if an established character miraculously returns from the dead with zero explanation? I don't know. I guess that's me just mostly nit-picking...

Close call with who is in the thunderbolts... well done!

You know, the one villain I'm missing in this line-up is Moonstone. She's a huge powerhouse and has been on the team pretty much since the start, but I guess she would be way too hard for a government agent to control. Maybe in a sequel.

I think The Thunderbolts in the MCU are going to be more discrete and secret than the comics version and The Avengers due to the fact that the team is mostly super-soldiers and people the world doesn't even know exist like Ghost or Taskmaster. With the team being this way it's very unlikely that they'll need a "Hulk" or even flashy big-time super suits like The Avengers have. I really wanted Songbird on the team though :( Still excited for The Thunderbolts anyway!

"U.S Agent isnt a straight up villain" *walker plunging his shield into a guy*