There’s no handbook for returning to a Marvel character after six years, but Hannah John-Kamen might as well have written one. “I didn’t go back and watch Ant-Man and the Wasp,” she says, grinning like someone who’s had to answer that question a few too many times. “It’s still the same Ghost, but different. She’s grown up. She’s not flickering around like she’s on 1% battery anymore.”
John-Kamen is back as Ava Starr, aka Ghost, in Thunderbolts—Marvel’s latest entry and maybe, just maybe, the first one that finally admits the audience has also aged, cracked, and questioned everything post-2020. “This is a very different kind of Marvel movie,” she says, and she’s not just toeing the press line. “It deals with shame, depression, and loneliness. The villain is within yourself. That’s the fight.”
It’s not just your usual Marvel hot people punching things (though that’s in there too). Thunderbolts has the audacity to be about feelings. Real ones. “Everyone’s carrying their own emotional trauma,” she says. “And instead of pretending it’s all cool, the movie says: No, it’s not. And that’s okay.”
That means Ghost, who once glitched through walls in visible pain, is now standing tall, slower and more “snaky,” as John-Kamen puts it. “She doesn’t think she deserves love or community. But she learns maybe she does. That maybe she can forgive herself.”
But don’t mistake Thunderbolts for a group therapy session in spandex. It’s also—somehow—hilarious. “We’ve got Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Florence Pugh, Wyatt Russell, David Harbour—everyone’s funny,” she says. “We even improvised a whole van scene. Just totally off the cuff.” And even Ghost, that previously humorless ball of quantum angst, gets to be dry and snarky. “We found this British sarcasm in her. It’s biting, and it works.”
As for returning to the character after all this time? “I didn’t die in Ant-Man and the Wasp, which is a good start,” she laughs. But her enthusiasm for Thunderbolts was already locked in when she did a deep dive into the comics. “Ghost is all over the Thunderbolts series. So I hoped. And then I got the call. I was over the moon.”
She talks about her castmates with the energy of someone who genuinely likes her coworkers—Florence Pugh is a riot, Wyatt Russell can improvise circles around anyone, and David Harbour? “Very, very, very funny,” she deadpans. And the director, Jake Schreier, knew how to let them play without losing the thread. “You can’t improv every scene,” she notes. “But the moments where you can are gold.”
John-Kamen’s favorite part, though, is the creation of the character. “It’s like writing a song,” she says. “You build something. You don’t just act, you compose.” And yes, that metaphor checks out—she plays piano and sings, and might be collaborating soon with a Brit Award-winning friend. “Stay tuned,” she teases, like someone who knows you’ll be tuning in whether she confirms it or not.
Marvel, of course, is already revving up for Avengers: Doomsday, but don’t expect her to spill secrets. “We’ve all signed the Marvel contract with our own blood,” she jokes. “They’ll send helicopters if I say anything.” She’s only half-kidding.
But right now, she’s soaking it in. Thunderbolts is on every billboard and she’s gotten to do something not everyone in the Marvel machine gets to do: play a character who evolves. “It’s not just about powers. It’s about being human. And that’s what makes it heroic.”
Also, walking through walls doesn’t hurt. “That’s still very cool,” she grins.
Watch the full interview above and then check out the trailer below.
