News has broken with a new headline running around that two familiar faces might just be making their return to the big screen for the MCU. Rachel Weisz and Laurence Fishburne are rumored to be returning to their roles as Melina and Bill Foster in The Thunderbolts. Let’s do some theory smashing.

Thunderbolts has finally been greenlit to begin production and filming within the next month, calling stars like Sebastian Stan, David Harbour, and Florence Pugh back to reprise their roles of Bucky Barnes, Red Guardian, and Yelena Belova. Of course, we also have Ghost returning from Ant-Man 2, Taskmaster from Black Widow, and U.S. Agent from The Falcon and Winter Soldier, all being led by our friend Valentina who has made herself a prominent figure in Phase 4 and now 5. There have also been talks of Harrison Ford, who took on General Ross’ role from the late William Hurt, as Red Hulk might be appearing in the movie. All this being said, it’s a highly anticipated film for Marvel fans who not only love many of the characters but also enjoy the anti-hero storyline.

With this, stars like Rachel and Laurence returning to their respective roles as Melina and Bill can’t be all that surprising if it is true. Melina, who plays a Black Widow and the mother figure for Natasha and Yelena has clear connection to actually three characters that are part of the Thunderbolts roster. As mentioned, Yelena views Melina as a mother figure, after the Black Widow movie has shown us the relationship that was formed on a mission when Yelena was very young. In that mission, Melina is also married to Alexi, our Red Guardian, connecting all three of them. Finally, the ending of the Black Widow film also connected Melina to Taskmaster, who took her with the rest of the Widows to an unknown location after Drakov and the Red Room were taken down. One could even argue there might be a connection to Bucky, as when he was the Winter Soldier, we know there was key research being done by Melina using his program to perfect the Widow program as well.

As for Bill Foster, for some, he might be a deep cut into the MCU that quite frankly, might have been forgotten had the recent What If? season not had him featured in one of the episodes. Yet way back when there was Ant-Man and the Wasp, the first sequel of the franchise, and while many remember it for the critical end credit scene, that entire movie’s ‘villain’ was Ghost, assited by Bill Foster. He stepped in to take care of her and help her with her phasing and was an old friend of Hank Pyms. While he doesn’t have the amount of connections to the Thunderbolt roster that Melina does, his return also wouldn’t be far off. As essentially a fatherfigure to Ghost and someone who has helped her through the pain of phasing, a few shots of him with her wouldn’t be unexpected.

All in all, both Melina and Bill are high candidates for making a return to the MCU in the Thunderbolts film. Since they aren’t part of the main team, they likely won’t play critical roles in the movie, but featuring them in a couple scenes, especially in the beginning, would likely make a lot of sense. As far as this theory goes, I would give my stamp of approval that we will see Melina and Bill return in our first real team up movie of the Multiverse Saga.

Image: “Thunderbolts”, Nerdist