Thunderbolts*: We’re finally about to learn what the asterisk means

Marvel’s big Thunderbolts* release is only a few weeks away, and I can’t wait to see this Avengers-like crossover as soon as it premieres. It’s easily the most exciting MCU film of the year for me, and I say that fully knowing that The Fantastic Four reboot we’ve been waiting for is coming in July.

We’ve had Fantastic Four stories before, albeit they were from different Marvel universes. The Thunderbolts aren’t exactly new characters, either. The Thunderbolts team will include plenty of former villains and anti-heroes we saw in other MCU stories. But this time, they’ll be heroes, fighting an incredible threat that will also be a potential ally.

That’s Bob (Lewis Pullman), of course, who becomes The Sentry and The Void, two powerful beings inhabiting the same mind. That’s no longer a spoiler, considering that Marvel has been showing this character in plenty of promotional materials, including trailers and clips, teasing his massive power.

How will this team of relatively regular humans subdue such an incredible being? That’s a mystery the movie will explain, though we already have a teaser hiding in plain sight. Also, I’ll note that the Thunderbolts* villain isn’t who you think. The trailers are misleading us, something we’ve come to expect from any MCU movie.

But the biggest mystery about the Thunderbolts* concerns that asterisk in the title. I aready think I know what it means, and it’s also a secret hiding in plain sight if you know where to look. I won’t have to wait for that May 2nd premiere to get my confirmation, as the secret behind that asterisk will leak much earlier than that, even before the official premiere.

Before I can tell you more, I’ll warn you that big Thunderbolts* plot spoilers follow below.

Before Marvel added that asterisk to the Thunderbolts* title, the film seemed to be the MCU’s response to the Suicide Squad. Once the asterisk dropped and the theories started pilling in, it was clear that wouldn’t be the case. This improvised team of misfits acting in Avengers-like fashion to save New York will survive the events in Thunderbolts*.

Theories said that the Thunderbolts will call themselves the New Avengers by the end of the movie. Dark Avengers is another possibility. Whatever it is, it’ll have Avengers in it, and that’s going to be the biggest, most surprising, and most satisfying thing about the movie. Even if you love leaks, like me, you’ll appreciate the plot twist once it’s revealed.

I also expect Bob’s The Sentry to be on the team now that Marvel has pulled off that amazing Avengers: Doomsday cast reveal. That impressive marketing stunt also confirmed that almost all of the Thunderbolts team members would appear in the movie, including Bob. Sadly, Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko) didn’t make the cut, and I fully expect to see her die in Thunderbolts*.

As for the big Thunderbolts* villain, that’s probably Val (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), who is likely responsible for the superhero/supervillain Bob becomes. Yes, the Thunderbolts will have to deal with The Sentry and especially The Void to clean up her mess, but Bob isn’t exactly the film’s main villain.

As I said, these Thunderbolts* spoilers are hiding in plain sight if you know where to look. They’ll be confirmed in about a week. That’s April 22nd, to be precise.

According to PremiereScene, Marvel will hold a special Thunderbolts* screening in the UK at Cineworld Leicester Square.

The film’s official red carpet premiere will happen on April 28th, a few days ahead of its release date. That red carpet premiere would normally be the event that gives us the final leaks about a highly anticipated Marvel movie. The film’s plot and credit scenes are usually confirmed around that time.

But since Marvel is doing things differently, MCU leaks fans won’t have to wait much longer to learn whether the leaks about the asterisk in the Thunderbolts* title are true. Come next week, we’ll probably get the exact name of this New Avengers team, as well as other plot details.

I also think Marvel might be doing this exactly for this big Thunderbolts* detail to leak. Sony pulled off a similar move with Venom 2 to establish a connection between the sequel and Spider-Man: No Way Home that would immediately leak and generate buzz.