Warning: This post contains spoilers for Thunderbolts*
The asterisk in the Thunderbolts* title became a major part of the Marvel Studios marketing campaign for the new movie. Why was it there? What did it mean? The studio remained mum. Now that the movie has premiered we finally know why the team of B-list superheroes (briefly) adopted the name of Thunderbolts and what was going on with the punctuation.
Thunderbolts* focuses on various superheroes struggling with depression and searching for a purpose. Yelena, Natasha’s sister from Black Widow, has wrestled with dark thoughts since her sister died. Her father, Red Guardian, yearns for the days long ago when he was the USSR’s answer to Captain America. Wyatt Russell’s John Walker cannot stop obsessing over his failed stint as Captain America, which leads to his wife and child leaving him. Hannah John-Kamen’s Ghost and Sebastian Stan’s Bucky Barnes have both had dark pasts in which they were experimented upon. And Lewis Pullman’s Bob, a.k.a. Sentry, has documented mental health issues, was the victim of abuse, and struggled with addiction.
Together, they find meaning as a team. And they spend much of the movie debating what the name of that team will be. It turns out the Thunderbolts moniker has nothing to do with Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross, an MCU character played by William Hurt and, after Hurt passed away, Harrison Ford. Though Ford was originally announced as a cast member in the movie—and thus presumably played a leading role in forming the team of antiheroes in early versions of the script—he eventually departed the project. Ford’s Ross did appear in this year’s Captain America: Brave New World and went on quite the journey in that film. He was elected president, turned into the Red Hulk, and was thrown in prison for holding a scientist hostage to use as his own personal doctor.
The writers behind Thunderbolts* came up with a different and sillier reason for the name: It’s named after Yelena’s childhood soccer team: the West Chesapeake Bay Thunderbolts. Coached by Red Guardian when the Russian family were spies masquerading as suburban Americans, the team didn’t win a single match.
Cute! But not branded well enough for Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, the CIA director who experimented on Bob to give him powers, almost destroyed all of New York in the process, and attempted to kill the Thunderbolts—until she recognized a marketing opportunity. After Bob accidentally unleashes a dark alter-ego called the Void and the Thunderbolts have to save everyone in the Big Apple from the new villain, Val decides the team has worth. She calls a press conference and introduces Yelena and the rest of the gang as the New Avengers.
The credits for the film are accompanied by dozens of press clippings either hailing the new super-team of sidekicks and antiheroes or questioning why in the world this group of underpowered misfits is taking up the mantle of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. And in a post-credits scene, we learn that Sam Wilson, the new Captain America, is in fact suing the New Avengers for copyright infringement. (Red Guardian’s solution? Change the name to New Avengerz with a “z.”)
The post The Meaning Behind the Thunderbolts* Name—And That Asterisk—Is Finally Revealed appeared first on TIME.
