Posted in: Marvel Studios, Movies | Tagged: thunderbolts

Thunderbolts* Director On That Big Spoiler Early In The Movie

Thunderbolts* director Jake Schreier details the thought process behind the big spoiler at the beginning of the film.

Thunderbolts* is in its opening weekend, and people really seem to be enjoying the film. If you were a betting person, no one would have put Thunderbolts* down as the property that appears to have given MCU the jumpstart it has needed for a couple of years now. The movie relies much more on character and conversation than flashy fireworks. We have a couple of people with super strength, Ava can go through walls, and Taskmaster has her mimic ability. That focus on character is why an early in the film spoiler really helps set the tone for the entire film. However, it is still a spoiler, and even though the entire internet seems to know this, we will mark this as a spoiler warning because we believe in choice when it comes to interacting with spoilers in the film section of Bleeding Cool. So if you don't want to be spoiled for anything that happens in Thunderbolts*, don't scroll beyond the gallery of images and go see the movie. It's a pretty good time.

So, Taskmaster dies. The death itself happens very early in the film; it's brutal, and it leaves no room for argument. All of the Thunderbolts are sent to an underground bunker with instructions to kill different members (Yelena is supposed to kill Ava, John is supposed to kill Yelena, etc). The idea being they would all try to kill each other, and either succeed, or the locked doors would prevent them from leaving, and the incinerator does the rest. So Ava shoots Taskmaster right between the eyes before everyone can clear up the misunderstanding and the fact that they were tricked. Her body is left behind, so we know she isn't coming back. Director Jake Schreier spoke to GamesRadar+ about the decision to kill off a character like this so early and brutally.

"Obviously, it's a big decision," Schreier explained. "We felt like a movie like this needed something like that, where you're like, 'Okay, if they'll do that, they could do anything,' you know, and you don't really know exactly where the thing is going to go. It needed a bit of shock or surprise."

Well, the surprise thing might happen within the narrative, but the audience wasn't that surprised. This was probably the worst-kept spoiler in a long time. We all knew this was happening for a bunch of different reasons. She was hardly present in any of the footage, even if Marvel tried to add her in the background to hide things (see the first image in the gallery). It became even more apparent when the chair stream revealed the entire Thunderbolts* cast except Taskmaster actress Olga Kurylenko. Schreier, however, wasn't paying attention in real time as everyone figured out the big and didn't know about the speculation until after the fact.

"Definitely, when we were making it, we ignored all of that. I didn't read anything," Schreier adds. "I mean, I've read since then, and it's like, yeah, there's a long lead time of getting these movies out there, and people are definitely going to have their theories in the marketing, it's such a part of it. But something that my friend [Tom Holland's Spider-Man trilogy director] Jon Watts told me, who has been through this, and I think maybe it was something Kevin [Feige] told him, is that when you sit in the theater and the lights go down, all of that stuff goes away, and you really want to try to not worry too much about what people are going to be bringing to the movie, and make sure that on a story level that stuff works."

While the death itself was not that surprising, and it is a shame to see the character go because her skills are so cool and there was the potential for so much there, the method is. When Marvel kills people, it tends to be heroic, sometimes even slow, so everyone can get in their feelings. Taskmaster, however, was gone with one shot. We don't see that brutality often in Marvel movies (the television shows don't count, looking at you, Daredevil: Born Again).

Thunderbolts*: Summary, Cast List, Release Date

In  Thunderbolts*,  Marvel Studios assembles an unconventional team of antiheroes — Yelena Belova, Bucky Barnes, Red Guardian, Ghost, Taskmaster and John Walker. After finding themselves ensnared in a death trap set by Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, these disillusioned castoffs must embark on a dangerous mission that will force them to confront the darkest corners of their pasts. Will this dysfunctional group tear themselves apart or find redemption and unite as something much more before it's too late?

Returning to their Marvel Cinematic Universe roles are Florence Pugh, Sebastian Stan, David Harbour, Wyatt Russell, Olga Kurylenko, Hannah John-Kamen, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus. The cast also includes newcomers to the MCU—Lewis Pullman, Geraldine Viswanathan, Chris Bauer, and Wendell Edward Pierce.

Jake Schreier directs Thunderbolts* with Kevin Feige producing. Louis D'Esposito, Brian Chapek, and Jason Tamez serve as executive producers.

Marvel Studios' Thunderbolts* opens in U.S. theaters on May 2, 2025.

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