THUNDERBOLTS* Writer Talks About Early Version of the Script With Baron Zemo in a Comic Accurate Storyline

The Thunderbolts* came out the gate swinging, or shooting, more accurately, and the film provided fans with a solid storyline that featured a lot of action, a lot of heart, and a few surprises.

If they had gone completely comic book accurate, Baron Zemo would have had a bigger role in the film, but Marvel Studios has made each superhero movie their own, keeping fans guessing and excited for more in the process.

An early draft of the film did include the criminal mastermind, but it just didn’t work once the real heart of the story was realized.

The film’s writer, Eric Pearson, sat down with Screen Rant to explain how the villain once factored into the story. 

"I think there was a version of a tag written a long time ago, kind of revealing who's behind it all. It was revealed that Baron Zemo was pulling some strings from prison or whatever.

“I might be just inventing things now, but I feel like there might've been a version where a tag where Zemo had broken out and swapped places with someone - maybe Valentina's assistant - and he was working with a Widow mask under."

"But I think those ideas lived for one iteration and then died. Sometimes people think that we're zagging on purpose, and it's like, 'No, we know that Zemo is very integral to a different story version of them.' He's part of putting them together, and we negated the need for that with our very premise."

"But we always think back to the comics. There's always the discussion of, 'Well, if there's a way to cleverly include Baron Zemo in this, he absolutely should be there.'

“But in this story that we wanted to tell and that we fell in love with, Yelena was central, and all of these people find their way through Yelena. And then we were introducing Bob as well, so he just didn't fit. We didn't want to just have a feathered fish."

Thunderbolts* did a good job of focusing the story, and making it fit into the world that’s already been established. There’s a lot of exciting stuff on the horizon at Marvel, and I look forward to what the next two years will bring.

Thunderbolts* is now playing in theaters everywhere.