The Thunderbolts had a rag-tag look at the climax of their movie, but they concept art by Aleksi Briclot shows several characters with a more sleek “black ops” look. Briclot shared the images on Instagram recently, remarking on how the designs changed in production and what remained the same. The biggest differences were in his designs for Red Guardian (David Harbour), who looked much more put-together in Briclot’s drawings. He also shared his original designs for Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen) and The Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan). Along the way, he explained how these drawing influenced the final character designs we saw on screen.
Briclot is credited for working in the art department on Thunderbolts*, and he has worked on other Marvel productions before. He started sharing his art for this movie on the night of the premiere back in April, showing his earliest design for Sentry. He just got back to this team in late May, starting with an early drawing of Ghost. “I’ve started from her previous look and was going for a BlackOp vibe following her dramatic development as well as the tone of the movie, “he explained.
Ghost didn’t look too different from her final form, though it’s hard to say if the cut and patterning of her costume matched with the drawing. However, the differences really showed in Alexei Shostakov, who was pictured with a lot more black muting his red costume. Even the star on his chest was almost obscured in black-on-black coloring and blended into his harnesses.
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“I was dealing with a darker vibe on this proposal, less red and more dark following the tone of the movie,” Briclot explained. “Less Santa Claus and more Spec Ops. This was exploration!”
Finally, just last week Briclot shared a look at his concept art for Bucky, which was very similar to the character’s final design. He wore motorcycle riding leathers over a t-shirt, though the color was a bit brighter in Briclot’s drawing. “I was going for a dark casual look, avoiding the Black Ops look I’ve used for the other teammates,” he explained. “Part of the brief was that at some point you couldn’t notice him in the crowd, avoiding any super hero look. (Except fog the arm as it seems an important visual signature for him, I know it’s tricky…)”
Briclot’s captions made it clear that these early designs were a starting point for the movie itself, and the they evolved over time. As he pointed out, it made sense for Bucky’s outfit to stand apart from the rest of the team, as he was the last to join. In the end, it also made sense for Alexei’s old costume to look out of place, since he was not going out on secretive missions like the rest of them.
Thunderbolts* is still playing in many theaters around the U.S. There’s no word on when it might be released on PVOD stores or streaming, so fans will want to catch it while they can.
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