According to Variety, the news of a 'Thunderbolts' movie being in development first broke last month, with Jake Schreier, who previously helmed 2012's 'Robot and Frank' and 2015's 'Paper Towns' on board. Eric Pearson, who penned Marvel's 'Black Widow', is attached to write the script, with Feige producing.

Created by writer Kurt Busiek and artist Mark Bagley, the Thunderbolts made their comic debut in a 1997 issue of 'The Incredible Hulk,' before being launched into their self-titled comic book later that year.

Originally presented as a team of heroes banding together after the Avengers were declared dead, a twist revealed that they were actually a supervillain team in disguise, attempting to conquer the world. Over the years, the team has gone through various iterations, but they're always the more nefarious members of the Marvel Universe.

Several MCU characters have the potential to pop up in the 'Thunderbolts'. The first and most famous leader of the group was Baron Zemo, played in the MCU by Daniel Brahl. Other members of the 'Thunderbolts' over the course of their history include Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), Abomination (Tim Roth), John Walker (Wyatt Russell) and Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko).

[With Inputs From IANS]