Marvel Studios’ most unusual release of 2025 is Thunderbolts*, a movie that stands out not only because of its edgy marketing but also because of its strange title. This is not, Marvel has emphasized, your average superhero movie. It’s one filled with sidekicks and antiheroes who, for the most part, don’t have any powers and are maybe a little unhinged. The off-beat ads and humorous posters have only stoked fan conversation about what, exactly, this project is and what on earth is going on with the asterisk in the title.
The film stars a hodgepodge of B-list characters from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, including Florence Pugh’s Yelena (Black Widow), Sebastian Stan’s Bucky (the Captain America movies), David Harbour’s Red Guardian (Black Widow), Wyatt Russell’s U.S. Agent (The Falcon and the Winter Soldier), and Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ Valentina (Black Widow) among others. Some of those actors, Marvel would like to remind you, have starred in critically beloved movies like Midsommar (Pugh), A Different Man (Stan), and You Hurt My Feelings (Louis-Dreyfus) from the indie production company A24. The writers and directors of A24’s Beef also happen to be at the helm of this project. The cinematographer worked on A24’s The Green Knight, the production designer on A24’s Hereditary, the editor on A24’s Minari, the composers on A24’s Everything Everywhere All at Once. You get the idea.
All this info comes courtesy of the Thunderolts* “total cinema” trailer, which adopts a phrase from film bros on Letterboxd who will understand upon watching the commercial that Marvel has scooped up a bunch of indie creatives to try to up its bona fides with that particular audience. Whether this marketing strategy makes moviegoers feel cynical about the state of film, where comic-book movies are clogging up the schedules of indie creators, or optimistic about a more experimental future for the flagging genre featuring spandex-wearing crimefighters, we shall see. Marvel is certainly succeeding in creating buzz, though.
But back to that inexplicable punctuation mark. Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige said at San Diego Comic-Con in 2024 that the production team won’t talk about the meaning of the asterisk until “after the movie comes out.” That hasn’t stopped fans from presenting many theories relating to whether “the Thunderbolts” is just a placeholder name for the team until they come up with a better one within the movie or whether the asterisk is just a marketing gimmick. Here’s what we know.
Where does the Thunderbolts name come from?
Before we zero in on the deeper meaning of the asterisk, let’s talk about why it might be there in the first place. At one point in the trailer for the movie, Red Guardian yells, “We are the Thunderbolts,” to which a beleaguered Bucky replies, “Can’t call ourselves that.”
You would be forgiven for assuming that the Thunderbolts are named after Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross, a character who just played a major role in Marvel’s last film, Captain America: Brave New World. But in the comics, the Thunderbolts (initially) have nothing to do with the militaristic Ross (played by William Hurt and, after Hurt passed away, Harrison Ford in the MCU). It’s merely a coincidence that they share a name.
What remains unclear is whether there will be some association (mistaken or not) between the Thunderbolts and Ross in the movie.
Ross is not exactly a popular guy in the MCU these days. In The Hulk, Ross uses dubious means to hunt down Bruce Banner. In Avengers: Civil War, Ross essentially kicks off the conflict between Captain America and Iron Man by trying to force U.S. government oversight over the Avengers. And in Brave New World, Ross is elected president though it is eventually revealed that he secretly imprisoned a scientist to use him as his own personal doctor and researcher. Ross also turns into the Red Hulk in that movie. He is eventually imprisoned for his crimes.
This team of ragtag superheroes would presumably not want to be associated with a disgraced former president. At one point, Harrison Ford was reported to be attached to the movie, but that no longer seems to be the case. Perhaps Marvel initially planned to have Thaddeus Ross involved in the team—in some versions of the comics, the Red Hulk does join the group—but scrapped those plans as they rewrote the future of the MCU. The studio now seems to be playing the confusing name situation for laughs.
Does a poster for Thunderbolts* offer answers?
Okay, so on to the asterisk. What, exactly, is it doing there?
An international poster for the movie may have solved the mystery. The bottom of the poster reads, “*The Avengers are not available.” This plot point lines up with what audiences have seen so far in the trailers: The Avengers have disbanded. Tony Stark and Natasha Romanoff are dead. Steve Rogers has traveled back in time. The rest of the members are spread across the galaxy. No one is coming to save New York City, so this ragtag group of misfits has to step up.
However, that may not be the end of the asterisk’s story. A brief combing of Marvel’s social media feeds suggests that Marvel isn’t exactly promoting that image on its traditional platforms. And the creative team continues to stay mum about the punctuation mark. So the asterisk may yet have another meaning.
Are there other theories that may bear fruit?
Again, Bucky’s line about not being able not use the Thunderbolts name from the trailer suggests that the Thunderbolts is a placeholder name for the team. Comic book fans have speculated this team will be some variation of the Avengers—the Secret Avengers or the Dark Avengers or maybe some new name like The Low-Rent Avengers.
Remember, the title of the Disney+ Marvel series The Falcon and the Winter Soldier changed to Captain America and the Winter Soldier in its last episode when Sam Wilson finally took on the mantle of Captain America as Steve Rogers asked him to do back in Avengers: Endgame.
Similarly, the so-called Thunderbolts could finally land on a new name at the end of their movie, just in time to team up with members of the (real) Avengers and X-Men in Avengers: Doomsday, out next year. We already know from a recent, very slow and dramatic casting announcement that all the major players in Thunderbolts* will also appear in that movie. So it seems like there is a very good chance, after all, that the asterisk is working at least double duty in this movie title.
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