Marvel couldn’t even wait for Thunderbolts*‘s first weekend at the box office to end before spoiling the big reveal at the end, launching a massive marketing campaign on Sunday to promote the film as The New Avengers. The big Thunderbolts* leaks and theories were right. The MCU movie wasn’t meant to be Marvel’s version of the Suicide Squad. Instead, the Thunderbolts faced a massive, potentially world-ending threat that earned them the New Avengers title.
Heading into The Fantastic Four, Avengers: Doomsday, and Avengers: Secret Wars, the Thunderbolts are the New Avengers, much to the amazement and annoyance of Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie), who set out to reform the Avengers under his leadership at the end of Captain America 4.
The meaning of the asterisk in the Thunderbolts* title isn’t the only theory or leak confirmed by the film’s premiere. The movie features a tragic death, one that MCU fans likely won’t appreciate. I know I didn’t. That character had a much better arc in an earlier version of the story.
While the New Avengers title is a spoiler you can’t avoid, you’ll want to skip what’s below if you haven’t seen Thunderbolts* in theaters.
In the weeks leading up to the Thunderbolts* premiere, it became increasingly clear that one of the film’s characters might die. Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko) wasn’t featured much in clips and marketing, prompting speculation that she wouldn’t survive the film.
I thought Bob (Lewis Pullman) would kill her, acting as The Void, to raise the stakes and show just how dangerous the dark version of The Sentry could be.
Taskmaster did die in the film, but it happened very early on, which explains why she had so little presence during the final marketing push. It was Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen) who killed her with a headshot during the big fight in Val’s (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) vault.
The death made it clear to everyone in the vault, and to the audience, that Val’s mercenaries were expendable. The stakes were real. They would even kill each other to get ahead long before they’d ever work together as heroes on the Thunderbolts or New Avengers teams.
So, Taskmaster’s career was cut short. She’ll never become a Thunderbolt or a New Avenger in the MCU’s main timeline.
While I would have liked to see her join the New Avengers, I get the value of her death. The film needed a shocking moment. Of all the characters, Taskmaster was probably the one who had to go. I just hope that the alternate Thunderbolts story a well-known leaker posted on X is what plays out for a Taskmaster variant somewhere in the multiverse.
According to MyTimeToShineHello, Taskmaster had a much larger role in the original version of the movie that didn’t end with her death. She would have become a New Avengers team member, and we’d have seen her in at least one more MCU adventure.
The leaker says the original Thunderbolts* plot would have told us more about Antonia. We’d have learned that an explosion at age nine damaged her brain. She’s had memory issues ever since, and they would have come up throughout the movie. Taskmaster would keep attacking US Agent (Wyatt Russell), her original target in the vault, until someone reminded her what was going on.
Taskmaster would bond with Ghost over their shared childhood trauma. Ghost would make a video to remind Taskmaster what’s happening whenever she gets lost.
Antonia would have saved the day by destroying the sonic barrier power source that kept Ghost trapped in the vault. She’d have played a key role in helping the early Thunderbolts team escape, and she’d have fought Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) once the Winter Soldier captured them.
The leak also claims Taskmaster would have been important in the fight between the Thunderbolts and The Sentry at the old Avengers Tower. She would have nearly killed Val and fought Bob, though she wouldn’t have been able to beat him.
Thunderbolts* would have ended similarly to the current version, with Taskmaster eventually joining the New Avengers. The draft also included a running joke involving Taskmaster and the New Avengers sharing a lot of Skittles throughout the movie.
If that arc is real, it sounds like it would have been a lot of fun. I imagine she would have stolen several scenes. I was definitely impressed with the vault fight scenes she did get. Maybe Marvel didn’t want her to steal too much focus. Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh) is clearly meant to be one of the new team’s leaders.
Also, the movie needed that early death, and you really couldn’t sacrifice anyone else. You need Ghost, US Agent, and Yelena to make it through. Taskmaster had to take the hit.
You can check out the alleged Taskmaster arc from the original Thunderbolts* plot draft on X.
Thunderbolts*, also known as The New Avengers, is currently still playing in theaters.
