THUNDERBOLTS* Director and Cast Break Down the Asterisk Twist and What It Means for the MCU
If you’ve seen Thunderbolts*, you know that ends on a note that changes everything. In a final-act reveal that turns a covert mission into a full-on identity shift, the team once thought to be Marvel's Suicide Squad knockoff is unveiled as the MCU’s New Avengers.
Director Jake Schreier recently sat down with Entertainment Weekly to unpack the meaning behind the asterisk twist and confirmed it wasn’t some late-game gimmick. He said:
“Even though a lot of things, almost everything, changed around it. There was the core idea of these operatives sent to kill each other, which I thought was such a neat twist on people expecting Marvel's Suicide Squad.
“And then that was the ending, and it went to a very different place, but that was the one thing that was like, no matter what we do, it's going to end in that place.”
He added that the seeds were always planted.
“There’s these little hints, so that it doesn’t feel like a total left turn when [the name change] happens. And then also in the credits, in both of our post-credit sequences, acknowledging that this is not necessarily the most comfortable or perfect fit, and that it'll be fun to watch how that goes going forward.”
As for the asterisk itself, it turns out that was part of Schreier’s pitch to Marvel.
“I thought it would be a small thing — we should have one sign, put an asterisk on it, and say, ‘Until we come up with something better.’ And then they really ran with that and embraced that.
“At this studio, with the amount of attention on it, it's a place where you could pull off something like that.”
Florence Pugh, who reprises her role as Yelena Belova, admitted she was caught off guard by the reveal, saying:
“Yeah, they're going to say that, and maybe in the tag scene they're like, ‘Nah, never mind. I was obviously really shocked, also because we’ve never seen these people work together before… I remember being as shocked when I read the Valentina line as Yelena was — all of them were.”
Pugh sees the new team-up as a turning point for her character, adding:
“It’s a huge honor. It’s massive, oh my God. It’s so thrilling to think that those at Marvel actually thought that that was a possibility and that they wanted to put us next to that.
“It is huge. It’s probably keeping her alive. It’s given her purpose… Having people to rely on, and for them to rely on her has kept her alive. It’s allowed her to feel loved again.”
Then there’s Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, who essentially names the team the New Avengers on live TV to save her own neck. Whether that move cements her as the new Nick Fury or brings her arc to a close is unclear, but Dreyfus is game for more:
“Well, I certainly hope so, and I can't really say. I'm not at liberty to say, but I know that anything is possible, and I'm up for more play in the Marvel universe at any moment. I stand at the ready.”
With Avengers: Doomsday looming and the New Avengers now front and center, it’s clear that Marvel is having fun redefining what it means to be a superhero team.