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‘The Bear’ actress Ayo Edebiri dodges Disney drones while reflecting on Marvel’s ‘Thunderbolts’ role

Actress aspires to be like 'the freaks on Letterboxd.'

Photo by Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic

The Bear actress Ayo Edebiri has confirmed she’ll be in Marvel’s Thunderbolts in 2024 and now she’s opening up about what it really means to her in terms of career development. 

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In a comedy actress roundtable featuring herself and several other stars who recently had meteoric success stories of their own, Edebiri was asked by The Hollywood Reporter whether getting the call from Marvel represented “the pinnacle of ‘I’ve made it’” or not.

Edebiri made humorous work of tiptoe-ing around the confidentiality Marvel so famously enforces about future projects in her response, saying, “Oh yeah, uh-huh, maybe. I don’t know if there’s an NDA or a drone around. No, I got a call. And I think it’s great. But the pinnacle for me would be to make my own things.“

The actress — whose role has yet to be confirmed in Thunderbolts — explained that she values having creative input on more independent projects.

“I’m developing my own shows, and I have ideas in this weird little head of mine. I love collaborating and I love watching things that are challenging and make me feel things. I sometimes have calls with my agents where I’m like, ‘I read this weird script a year after, I would’ve loved a part in this.’ I don’t care if it’s a big part or a small part, I would’ve loved to just be a part of something that is interesting and kind of strange. I want to do things like that. I want to be the freaks on Letterboxd.”

Many of the characters who will appear in Thunderbolts have already been confirmed, such as the debut of Harrison Ford’s interpretation of Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross, Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, David Harbour’s Red Guardian, Florence Pugh’s Yelena Belova, and Steven Yeun’s debut in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as The Sentry.

But as fleshed out as the Thunderbolts IMDb page is for many of the actors, Edebiri is not credited with a character name just yet, though she is listed in the top cast.

Thunderbolts is currently in production and it’s expected to hit theaters on July 26, 2024.