Following the discharge of Captain America: Courageous New World on Friday, Thunderbolts* is subsequent on the upcoming Marvel motion pictures slate, arriving in early Could. The primary trailer was launched in September, and this previous weekend, MCU followers had been handled to the Thunderbolts* Tremendous Bowl trailer. Whereas arguably the largest draw for this preview was the sturdy hints in direction of Sentry being the primary villain, having considered each trailers a number of occasions now, I’m fairly assured I do know which member from the title group goes to be killed off and roughly when this can occur.
The Thunderbolts lineup within the thirty sixth of the Marvel motion pictures so as consists of Florence Pugh’s Yelena Belova, Sebastian Stan’s Bucky Barnes, Wyatt Russell’s John Walker/U.S. Agent, David Harbour’s Alexei Shostakov/Purple Guardian, Hannah Jonh-Kamen’s Ava Starr/Ghost and Olga Kurylenko’s Antonia Dreykov/Taskmaster, with Julia Louis Dreyfus’ Valentina Allegra de Fontaine and Lewis Pullman’s Bob additionally enjoying essential roles within the film. I’m right here to speak about Taskmaster, who’s returning following her debut look in 2021’s Black Widow (which may be watched with a Disney+ subscription when you want a refresher on the character’s backstory). Sadly, I’m considering she’s shuffling off this mortal coil in Thunderbolts*.
Why I Suppose Taskmaster Will Die In Thunderbolts*
Taskmaster is the Thunderbolts* protagonist who’s gotten the least quantity of consideration on this early advertising, and I’m nearly 100% constructive it’s as a result of we gained’t be seeing her for that lengthy. Right here’s my reasoning: we all know that after a few of these characters’ paths cross in a reasonably chaotic means full with bullets, alarms and punches being thrown, the whole group will head over what had as soon as been Avengers Tower, however now belongs to Valentina (presumably she bought Tony Stark’s former headquarters for Earth’s Mightiest Heroes someday after the occasions of Black Panther: Wakanda Without end):
Nonetheless, this is without doubt one of the few pictures the place Taskmaster is seen amongst her different teammates, with a lot of the different group footage in these previews involving the opposite 5 characters. That is reminding me of how Adam Seashore’s Slipknot was barely proven in previews for the 2016 DCEU film Suicide Squad. As a result of, because it turned out, the character was killed in the beginning of the mission when he tried to make a run for it and Rick Flag Jr. detonated the nanite bomb in his head to show to the opposite Job Power X recruits that getting out of line comes with deadly penalties. Granted, I believe Taskmaster could have extra to do in Thunderbolts* than Slipknot did in Suicide Squad, however my level nonetheless stands.
I’m in no way the primary to assume that Taskmaster will chew the mud in Thunderbolts*. This has been speculated amongst followers for months, though my colleague Sean O’Connell made his case final November for why he thinks it is a misdirect. Nonetheless, following that Tremendous Bowl trailer, I believe the writing is unquestionably extra clearly on the wall that she’s going to die.
How I Suppose Taskmaster Will Die In Thunderbolts*
As I discussed earlier, whereas Marvel Studios hasn’t outright confirmed this, it’s trying fairly apparent Sentry will likely be Thunderbolts*’ primary antagonist. Like within the comics, it seems that Lewis Pullman’s model of Bob has a darker half referred to as The Void, and it’s this antagonist who seems to be liable for the assault on Not-Avengers Tower that we see within the Tremendous Bowl trailer. I’ll remind you all studying, Taskmaster reveals up with the opposite group members to satisfy with Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (whom will be taught much more about), however whereas Yelena, Bucky, John, Alexei and Ava stroll out of this assault intact, albeit worse for put on, Antonia is nowhere to be seen, because the beneath picture reveals:
I can’t say I do know precisely how she’ll be killed in Thunderbolts*, however it’s simple to deduce that Taskmaster will perish when The Void is wreaking havoc on that constructing. Nonetheless, since she mainly functioned as extra of a residing weapon in Black Widow than an precise character, and presumably her restricted display time on this film gained’t enable her to be successfully fleshed out into somebody compelling and three-dimensional, I don’t assume I’ll really feel any nice sense of loss when she’s killed off… sorry, if she’s killed off.
Perhaps if she’d appeared in additional motion pictures or one of many MCU’s TV reveals, I’d really feel in a different way. Sadly, that emotional connection simply is not there, even bearing in mind Antonia’s tragic backstory. Because it stands, it seems to be as if her dying could be/would be the catalyst that will get the surviving protagonists to lastly begin working collectively as a group, similar to what occurred with Phil Coulson in The Avengers.
Frankly, I want this wasn’t the case. Whereas I used to be initially dissatisfied after seeing Black Widow that Taskmaster had been so closely altered from the character within the comics, I used to be nonetheless curious to see how Antonia Dreykov would stand out from the Tony Masters model, as the one actual similarities between the 2 are their muscle reminiscence skill and skull-looking masks. Alas, it doesn’t appear to be that’ll be the case, although I’d wish to be confirmed incorrect. Perhaps Sean is true and Antonia will simply refuse no matter deal Valentina provides and depart earlier than Bob/Sentry/The Void reveals up, however I’m extraordinarily skeptical about that.
We’ll discover out if my concept is appropriate when Thunderbolts* is launched on Could 2. Different notable solid members within the film embrace Laurence Fishburne’s Invoice Foster, Rachel Weisz’s Melina Vostokoff and Geraldine Viswanathan’s Mel, in addition to Wendell Pierce and Chris Bauer in undisclosed roles. Jake Schreier directed the image, and Eric Pearson, Lee Sung Jin and Joanna Calo all labored on the script. In the meantime, learn CinemaBlend’s Captain America: Courageous New World assessment and discover out what different critics are saying about this weekend’s Marvel launch.