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But Florence Pugh, as the feisty Yelena Belova, could be the first big building block toward such an enterprise.

She’s the gateway to a new group of superheroes. They’re assembledÌý— supposedlyÌý— to help Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) plot a marvelous return. When they get to her lair (one that certainly must have piqued interest), they discover she’s behind a plot to destroy them.

That means they’ve got to get out of the silo and track down the bad guys. In the mix: John Walker (Wyatt Russell), Ava Starr (Hannah John-Kamen), Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) and a barefoot guy in scrubs named Bob (Lewis Pullman) who could hold the secret to plenty of this installment. They’re met by Yelena’s dad (an overly loud David Harbour) who drives the kind of vehicle that could fall apart at any minute. Bonded through adversity, the ragtag bunch (who get the name from a childhood sports team) face another threat and plenty of crashing buildings, dark smoke (shades of “Avengers: Endgame�) and tricks that could land one of those first Academy Award nominations for stunt work.

Pugh is particularly good at rolling through the rubble. She doesn’t get sentimental, either, and has a way with encouraging others that doesn’t smack of something recycled. While director Jake Schreier has too many childhood scenes for backfill he does give her plenty to do. That shortchanges the others but does point up those leadership qualities. Iron Man’s successor is secured.

Interestingly, Pullman has one of those parts that Willem Dafoe or Tim Blake Nelson might have earned a decade ago. He’s not quite in Thor’s league but there’s enough that’s questionable to make you wonder how far his Thunderbolts* career will go. He works nicely with the others, even though they have shoes and he doesn’t.

Louis-Dreyfus, who sports a Cruella de Vil-adjacent hairstyle, appears to have watched enough politicians to put congressmen and journalists at bay. She pooh-poohs plenty, then gets a great assistant (nicely played by Geraldine Viswanathan) to do much of her dirty work. When that assistant questions her boss’s motives, the rebel forces find their footing.

Shattering glass could become Schreier’s trademark. There’s a lot of it, particularly in penthouses where people should know better.

That black smoke is troubling, too, but it does connect this with the OG films. If that’s the hint of a future blip, the franchise is in trouble.

But as long as Pugh gets to bark orders and the others stay in line, “Thunderbolts� could be ready to strike in a big, big way.