Junkets are weird even on a good day. Everything is strictly coordinated, you have minutes to discuss a film you've either just seen – or, in this case, I had only seen 30 minutes of – and there are all kinds of restrictions on spoilers.

If you're lucky, you get to chat with charming and funny individuals like Pullman, John-Kamen, and Russell, who will happily fill the time with witty answers, even when dancing around the obvious things we can't reveal just yet.

I asked Pullman about his role as Bob, who is a newcomer to the franchise and remains shrouded in mystery. He was understandably cagey about his answer. "I don't want to deprive anyone of the experience of discovery", he explains.

"With all these characters, we've spent all this time building them. Wyatt spoke of how he doesn't want to play the same thing, even if they're the same character throughout the movies. You want each movie to have its own arc. I had to do a bunch of homework about what Bob had done before all of this. Luckily, there's a wealth of comics that help with that!"

"He's very much a fish out of water guy who has been dealt a real rough deck of cards. He wants to help, he wants to be part of something. He wants love."

I was also curious about where Thunderbolts* could go after all the multiverse and universal shenanigans that the Marvel franchise has gotten to in these past years. Luckily, Russell was all too happy to wax lyrical about what the new adventure brings with it.

Says Russell: "You put these archetypal characters together and see how they work together, but it's really about yourself, how you become a better version of yourself. Inner space, inner cosmos. It's an exploration of your inner cosmos. There's a lot going on within ourselves that's as mystifying and as worth exploring as outer space."

Pullman laughs: "Put that on the poster!"

"It's an exploration of your inner cosmos. There's a lot going on within ourselves that's as mystifying and as worth exploring as outer space."

Director Jake Schreier has compared the team to Toy Story 3 in theme, so, naturally, I had to ask which toy they would be in the series. If they couldn't pick a Marvel property, that is. Based on their reaction, I'm not the first one to ask this.

"I'd be one of Sid's toys, the next door kid," John-Kamen says. "One of his battered, experimented toys that's been put together with glue."

"I'd be Mr. Potato Head," Russell says, causing Pullman to sigh with exasperation. "That was gonna be my choice!"

After a moment, Pullman smiles. "I'd be the dumb T-Rex. Yeah, that'd be me."

You can watch the entire interview below. Look out for a full review closer to the premiere.