The Disney+ MCU shows continue to pile up, and it’s hard to keep up with the sheer quantity. Still, those first few projects entertained with pleasant twists, including one genuinely surprising cameo from The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. That would be the moment when Julia Louis-Dreyfus arrives as Countess Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (you can call her “Val”), and the Veep and Seinfeld star has spoken at length at how much fun it was to be smuggled onto set in one of the MCU’s better kept secrets.
Val was meant to debut in Black Widow‘s post-credit scene, in which she also talked to unenthused recruit Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh) while she visited Natasha Romanoff’s grave (signaling Scarlett Johansson’s formal MCU exit). As it turns out, Val’s assembled group of ex-villain-types will take flight in the Thunderbolts movie, where they’ll presumably take on government-sponsored missions. In a wide-ranging Variety piece about her move into movies, Louis-Dreyfus says that she lobbied hard to “fight” in Thunderbolts, but now she realizes that getting jacked must happen. Oh boy:
In another unexpected move, Louis-Dreyfus has lobbied to kick some ass. “I pitched it; I told them I really want to fight. I haven’t seen the script yet — we’ll see if that happens,” she says. But she changes her tune when she thinks about the possible physical demands of a Marvel role: “”Ugh. I guess I’d better get in shape.”
Valentina previously swathed herself in all-black overcoats, so “jacked” wasn’t part of the equation, but fighting is a whole other ballgame. If you see how Louis-Dreyfus is clutching those Emmys in the photo at the top ^^ of this post, however, it’s obvious that she’s no stranger to being able to kick some butt. Hopefully, we’ll find out more when Thunderbolts starts filming this summer.
(Via Variety)