Marvel’s THUNDERBOLTS* Director Defends Shocking Character Death: “It Needed a Bit of Shock or Surprise”
Spoilers ahead for those who haven’t seen Thunderbolts* yet.
Marvel’s Thunderbolts* wastes no time shaking things up, and it does so in a way that fans didn’t see coming. Right out of the gate, the film kills off a major character, and director Jake Schreier knows exactly what kind of chaos that moment was meant to stir.
If you’ve seen the movie, you already know the twist. If not, but it’s also something you maybe have already figured out from watching the trailers.
In the big first-act move, Thunderbolts* sees the sudden death of Antonia Dreykov, aka Taskmaster (played by Olga Kurylenko).
The moment unfolds during a tense standoff inside Val’s secret vault, where Yelena, Ghost, John Walker, and Taskmaster have each been lured separately under the illusion of individual missions. Before anyone realizes it’s a setup, Ghost reacts fast and fatally shoots Taskmaster in the head.
When I saw the movie, there was an audible collective gasp in the theater in this moment. I mean, a lot of people knew Taskmaster wasn’t going to make it, we just didn’t realize that’s how it was going to go down.
Schreier, speaking with GamesRadar+, explained the creative reasoning behind the kill saying:
"Obviously, it's a big decision. 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."
Theories about Taskmaster’s death had been floating around well before the movie’s release. Observant fans pointed out her absence from trailers, and she wasn’t even the Avengers: Doomsday casting livestream. Still, nothing compares to witnessing it happen in real time.
Schreier admits he tuned all of that out during production, saying:
"Definitely, when we were making it, we ignored all of that. I didn't read anything. 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 at the end of the day, Schreier stuck to a piece of advice passed down through Marvel ranks, something Spider-Man director Jon Watts once shared with him:
"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."
One thing’s for sure: Thunderbolts* doesn’t play it safe, and Schreier wouldn’t have it any other way.