Thunderbolts* opens on May 2nd, so this week, Marvel decided to drop a final trailer for the highly anticipated crossover movie. The MCU has lacked such big team-ups until now, and Marvel’s surprising decision not to have an Avengers movie in the Multiverse Saga so far has been a huge letdown.
It’s no wonder Marvel is pulling out all the stops to promote Thunderbolts*, especially considering that Captain America: Brave New World didn’t exactly hit the mark. Releasing a final trailer close to the film’s premiere should get more butts into seats come the Thunderbolts* premiere, though I already think the movie will have something amazing going for it once it hits cinemas: Word of mouth.
You see, leaks say that the asterisk in the title will deliver a big surprise to the audience, the kind of surprise that could spread like wildfire, making those undecided MCU fans want to see the movie.
The point of the final trailer is to convince you to spend money to see the film in theaters rather than wait for the digital or Disney Plus release. The clip features new footage and dialogue that Marvel omitted from previous trailers. It also gives us a better look at the big threats the Thunderbolts will have to face.
But I’ve also noticed an incredibly sneaky yet heartbreaking detail in the final Thunderbolts* trailer that teases a big plot twist, one that some fans already anticipate. Before I can explain, I’ll warn you that spoilers might follow.
The two-minute clip below boils down the entire premise of Thunderbolts*. We have a team of guilt-ridden misfits, most of whom don’t believe they can be heroes if the situation demands it, but have to find the courage to rise to the challenge of saving the world when there’s no Avengers team to do it.
Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), aka the new Black Widow, is the protagonist of the trailer, and that’s not a surprise given that she’s one of the film’s leads. She’s not going through the best phase of her life, and becoming a hero seems impossible.
Thankfully, there are Thunderbolts around her who are more optimistic. Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) and Red Guardian (David Harbour) are the ones who seem to be up for the task, and ultimately they’ll convince everyone they have to stand up to Bob’s The Void (Lewis Pullman). That’s the other superpersonality of Bob’s, the more villainous one. The Sentry, who is more of a hero, is the other.
The final Thunderbolts* trailer gives us plenty of action scenes and a better look at Bob’s villainous persona. We also hear him identify himself as The Void.
Finally, the trailer teases how this Avengers-like team might win: They’ll have to embrace their own darkness to see the light.
There’s nothing unusual here. But then something happens at the end of the trailer. We get this asterisk symbol:
It’s nothing unusual, right? An asterisk is an asterisk; how is this such a big deal? Well, it’s either a mistake from Marvel or a heartbreaking foreshadowing that a character will die.
Why? Well, the asterisk here has five tips. The Thunderbolts have six members that we know of. In addition to Yelena, Bucky, and Red Guardian, there’s Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), US Agent (Wyatt Russell), and Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko).
Marvel has been using asterisks with six tips, which is what you usually get when typing the character on the keyboard. I’ll point out the recent poster Marvel released for Thunderbolts* on social media, seen below on the film’s IMDB page. Notice the six tips of the asterisk, each corresponding to a Thunderbolts team member.
Val (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) is also at that table, but we’ll ignore her for now.
The change might indicate that one of the six Thunderbolts members will die by the end of the movie. It appears that the character will be Taskmaster, which hasn’t seen that much action in recent clips. Or maybe Marvel is toying with fans, and Taskmaster won’t die.
I’ll point out that Kurylenko is the only Thunderbolts member not confirmed to return in Avengers: Doomsday. Even Bob will appear in Avengers 5. That absence also teased that we’ll see her die soon.
Then again, I’d expect Bob to join the Thunderbolts by the end of the film. Well, he’ll be known as The Sentry rather than The Void, and they’ll be known as the New Avengers rather than the Thunderbolts. That is the actual big plot twist of the movie.
If Taskmaster has to go for that to happen, so be it. In all truthfulness, I have a hard time telling Taskmaster and Ghost apart in these fast-paced clips. As much as I’d want to see more of her, maybe we don’t need Taskmaster in the MCU for too long.
