Summary
Thunderboltsis the second movie set to be released by Marvel Studios in 2025. The movie will see several of the villains and antiheroes in the MCU gather to form aSuicide Squad-esque team. The lineup forThunderboltswas confirmed at D23 back in 2022, but one member of the team has been surprisingly absent in marketing material.
Thunderbolts*will be a Phase 5 film in the MCU, directed by Jake Schreier (Beef). Thecast comprises returning MCU actors, including Florence Pugh as Yelena Belova, Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes, David Harbour as Alexei Shostakov, Wyatt Russell as John Walker, Hannah John-Kamen as Ava Starr, and Olga Kurylenko as Taskmaster. Julia Louis-Dreyfus will also appear as CIA director Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, and Lewis Pullman makes his MCU debut in the movie as Bob.
John Walker/U.S. Agent
Antonia Dreykov/Taskmaster
While the Avengers-like team-up is expected to be an even showcase of each character’s skills, not all characters are equal in the latestThunderboltstrailer. At D23 Brazil earlier in November, Marvel Studios released an almost 4-minute trailer forThunderbolts. The trailer begins with a scene showingYelena, Red Guardian, Ghost, and U.S. Agentin a car, attempting to outrun a military convoy. The group is joined shortly after by Bucky Barnes arriving on a motorcycle. It’s unclear when in the movie this scene takes place, but one missing member of the team is Taskmaster.
While Taskmaster’s absence in one scene would be forgivable, the character barely appears in any of the footage shown in the newThunderbolts*trailer. Each character on the Thunderbolts teams is highlighted in the new trailer, but the footage used for Taskmaster all seems to come from the same scene. This scene has been shown consistently in marketing for the Marvel movie and shows theThunderbolts all attempting to kill each otherin some kind of vault.
One even more questionable example shows five of the main characters (Yelena, Ghost, Red Guardian, US Agent, and Bucky) arriving at Avengers Tower to meet with Valentina. In the opening shot, Taskmaster is not with the group in the elevator and can’t be seen among them walking into the room. However, in a wider shot, Taskmaster is seen standing at the back of the group. This could mean that Taskmaster is only introduced as part of the group in this scene, or it could be an instance of trickery where Marvel’s VFX team has implanted Taskmaster into the shot to make it appear like she is in the scene when perhaps, in reality, she is not. There are multiple other instances wherethe Thunderbolts teamis seen together at different locations and points in the movie, but Taskmaster is never pictured among them.
What Happens to Taskmaster?
Taskmaster’s lack of content inThunderboltsseems to suggest that the character may not be a big part of the movie and Marvel may even take this opportunity to kill off the character entirely.The Suicide Squadused a similar technique, setting up villains like Captain Boomerang, Javelin, and The Detachable Kid to be prominent characters on the team, only for them all to die in the movie’s opening scene. Marvel could pull a similar stunt inThunderbolts, using Taskmaster’s early demise to establish that none of the characters are safe.
The room in which the Thunderbolts all seemingly meet for the first time is shown in latest the trailer to explode in a blaze of fire, so if Taskmaster is one of the characters left in the room she’s probably toast. An alternative is that Taskmaster just doesn’t make the cut on the team, and disappears from the movie for other reasons, but her lack of presence in many of the scenes seems to suggest her role won’t be a big one.
Taskmaster Deserves Better
Thunderbolts* will be Taskmaster’s first appearance in the MCU since 2021’s Black Widow. Admittedly,Taskmaster was considered one of the drawbacksofBlack Widow, with many disappointed at the plot twist which revealed the character’s identity to be Antonia Dreykov, the daughter of the Red Room’s founder. In Marvel Comics, Taskmaster is more commonly known as Anthony Masters, a former SHIELD agent turned mercenary, who at one point trained John Walker in the comics.
In addition to the identity twist,Black Widowalters Taskmaster’s personality,making the character mute, devoid of emotion, and something of a lackluster protagonist after so much build-up. It will be interesting to see Yelena’s reunion with Taskmaster in Thunderbolts, as the two haven’t seen each other since the events ofBlackWidow. However, if Taskmaster doesn’t make the cut inThunderbolts*, it would be clear why as the character doesn’t have much to offer the group’s dynamic, which is hinged on their witty banter and arguments.
If Marvel does kill off Antonia inThunderbolts*it doesn’t mean the moniker of Taskmaster has to die with her. Perhaps Marvel use this opportunity to open the door for a new iteration of Taskmaster, one that is more aligned with the character’s comic book counterpart.
Thunderbolts*will be released on Jun 05, 2025.
Thunderbolts*
Marvel’s Thunderbolts is a superhero movie based on the comic team of the same name. The movie acts as a part of the MCU’s fifth phase of films. The film sees the likes of Bucky Barnes, Yelena Belova, Wyatt Russell, the Red Guardian, and more as an unlikely group of heroes and villains brought together to fight for good.
