The Red Guardian made his Marvel Cinematic Universe debut in Black Widow, and he’ll be appearing again in Thunderbolts. Thunderbolts is set to bring together several characters who have previously been villains or antiheroes in the MCU for a team-up. Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), Antonia Dreykov (Olga Kurylenko), Ava Starr (Hannah John-Kamen), John Walker (Wyatt Russell), and Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) will all join Alexei Shostakov AKA the Red Guardian (David Harbour) for Thunderbolts.
While not much is known about just how the Thunderbolts will come together or what their objective will be in the MCU movie, the team is formed as a way to reform former villains in the comics. It’s possible the same could be true of the MCU. Bucky Barnes is said to be the leader of the team, but it seems unlikely everyone involved, especially Red Guardian, will be okay with that. Red Guardian has superior abilities compared to the average human, like much of the Thunderbolts team, but where did his abilities come from?
Who Is The Red Guardian?
In both the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Marvel Comics, the Red Guardian’s real name is Alexei Shostakov. Alexei is a Soviet pilot who is saved by Russian Intelligence and begins working as an undercover agent. There is a difference in how the two are portrayed in the movies and written in the comics though.
In the comics, Alexei and Natasha Romanoff, or Natalia Romanova as she’s known at the time, marry and work as super-spies for the KGB before Natasha defects to SHIELD and begins working for the United States. The MCU does not take that tactic. Instead, Alexei is the operative who essentially raises Natasha while she is a child being trained in the Red Room. When a family is needed to go undercover, Alexei is the father while Black Widows in training Natasha (Scarlett Johansson) and Yelena Belova are the children, and Melina Vostokov (Rachel Weisz), a Black Widow and scientist herself, is their mother.
The Red Guardian is the Soviet Union’s answer to Captain America (Chris Evans). He has a patriotic-themed suit in red and white that he wears when not trying to be stealthy, demonstrating his connection to the government. After the fall of the regime he worked for, however, and his criticism of the government, Alexei Shostakov ends up in a Russian prison, broken out by his daughters decades later, reuniting the family to go up against their former boss, Anton Dreykov (Ray Winstone).
How Did Red Guardian Get Supersoldier Powers?
Since the Red Guardian is the Soviet Union’s answer to Captain America, it stands to reason that he’s a supersoldier. In fact, he is the only supersoldier for the Soviet Union in the MCU so far. Though the Black Widows are trained to be perfect combatants, they don’t have the super strength that the Red Guardian and Captain America do.
When Alexei joined the Soviet Armed Forces in the MCU, he agreed to be experimented on when the Soviet government attempts to recreate the supersoldier serum. It’s not an exact match to Captain America’s, but it does give him superior strength, reflexes, and faster healing ability. It also makes him think of himself as Captain America’s rival despite Steve Rogers not being active during the Red Guardian’s career.
It’s not clear in the MCU just what the experiment used to make the Red Guardian a super soldier. The MCU, after all, has seen many different attempts to recreate the supersoldier serum used on Captain America, but none of them are exactly the same. Even those who end up with the strength of supersoldiers in Falcon And The Winter Soldier have a similar formula, but not necessarily the exact same match.
The Black Widow movie backstory is similar to that of the comics, but not exactly the same. While he was a public hero, the government separated him from his wife, told her that he was dead, and trained him to be a covert operative. He still went through the experimental supersoldier process in the comics but under slightly different circumstances.
Red Guardian's returns to the Marvel Cinematic Universe in Thunderbolts, which is slated to land in theaters on July 26, 2024.