Warning: minor SPOILERS for Thunderbolts* are ahead!
We’re a week out from Thunderbolts* moving from the upcoming Marvel movies slate to one of the offerings on the 2025 movies schedule. Following three months after Captain America: Brave New World, the 36th MCU flick sees antiheroes/former villains like Bucky Barnes, Yelena Belova and John Walker joining forces after they’re caught up in a scheme orchestrated by Valentina Allegra de Fontaine. A new clip has been released showing the team facing down the CIA director, and after watching it, I now have a different theory about what’s going to happen to Taskmaster, one of the Thunderbolts* protagonists.
Fontaine has been making moves in the Marvel Cinematic Universe ever since Julia Louis-Dreyfus debuted as the character in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Two and a half years after she was last seen in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, we’re finally going to learn about Val’s origins and what she’s been plotting, though the Thunderbolts are ready to stop her, as you’ll see below:
Ok, this is pretty straightforward. The five protagonists confront Valentina at what was once Avengers Tower and she lobs some insults at them. Hang on, five protagonists? Yes, Bucky, Yelena, Walker, Red Guardian and Ghost are accounted for, but where’s Taskmaster? Here’s where things get even weirder. Check out this frame from the first Thunderbolts* trailer:
Here we see Taskmaster with the others at Valentina Allegra de Fontaine’s new digs, so then where is she in the clip? Before I share my theory, I need to point out that many, including myself, believe that Taskmaster is going to be killed off in Thunderbolts*. Olga Kurylenko’s Antonia Dreykov, who was introduced in Black Widow, is not getting nearly the same amount of coverage in marketing as her cohorts, leading the suspicion that she’ll get the same treatment that Slipknot did in Suicide Squad.
I still believe this is going to happen, but after watching that Thunderbolts* clip, I don’t think it’s going to happen in the way I originally envisioned. Before today, I’d thought that Taskmaster would meet her demise when Lewis Pullman’s Bob is taken over by his Void personality and starts wreaking havoc at what’s now known as Watchtower. Instead, I think her death will come earlier in the movie, either shortly before Void surfaces or long before the team gets up in Valentina’s business.
With the former option, maybe there’s some kind of trap set at Watchtower that kills Taskmaster, but doesn’t seem likely to me. The latter is looking much more promising. I think the character was digitally inserted into that frame from the Thunderbolts* trailer, and that we won’t see her at all in that scene. Instead, Taskmaster will die way earlier in the movie, perhaps even right after these starring characters meet one another. Maybe her demise will push the others to start working together to figure out what’s going on. Whether that’s accurate or a different set of events will unfold, this clip certainly doesn’t strengthens the thought that Taskmaster isn’t long for this world.
All will be revealed when Thunderbolts* opens in theaters on May 2. After that, The Fantastic Four: First Steps will follow as the third and final MCU movie of 2025, hitting the big screen on July 25.