Thunderbolts* director Jake Schreier recently shared a surprising source of inspiration behind his upcoming Marvel Studios film.

What did Toy Story 3 inspire in Thunderbolts*?

Speaking to Empire in a recent interview, Schreier spoke about the films that influenced the upcoming movie. He noted certain films like Reservoir Dogs, Ronin, and Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol, films that see groups of mis-matched teams forced to work together.

Another surprising film Schreier noted was Pixar’s Toy Story 3. Specifically, the story of the toys in the 2010 movie all facing obsolescence and working to handle it.

“It wasn’t as focused on a genre as much as dynamics amongst characters. They all have that dynamic of a team that is thrown together. That [furnace] sequence works so well because you’ve come to care about these characters so much,” says Schreier of the Pixar threequel. “Can they get out of the trash can together?”

Thunderbolts* will be released in United States theaters on May 2, 2025.

The cast of the movie includes Florence Pugh as Yelena Belova, Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes, David Harbour as Alexei Shostakov/Red Guardian, Wyatt Russell as John Walker/U.S. Agent, Olga Kurylenko as Antonia Dreykov/Taskmaster, Hannah John-Kamen as Ava Starr/Ghost, Lewis Pullman as Bob, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Valentina Allegra de Fontaine.

Geraldine Viswanathan will also appear as a character named Mel in the film, while Wendell Edward Pierce has been tapped to play an undisclosed role. Additionally, Laurence Fishburne and Rachel Weisz are also expected to reprise their respective roles as Bill Foster and Melina Vostokoff from Ant-Man and the Wasp and Black Widow.

The script for Thunderbolts* comes from Eric Pearson, Lee Sung Jin, and Joanna Calo. Schreier’s past filmography includes 2012’s Robot & Frank and 2015’s Paper Towns. He also directed a number of episodes of Netflix’s Beef Season 1.