What That Thunderbolts* Asterisk Means for Some Marvel TV Characters (Warning: Movie Spoilers)
As revealed at the end of Thunderbolts*, the MCU Phase 5 team-up film now in theaters, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier's John Walker aka U.S. Agent — that goofy, knock-off Captain America — is now one of the Avengers.
More from TVLine
Jeremy Renner Explains Hawkeye Season 2 Hold-Up, Says He Was Offered 'Half the Money' to Return
Daredevil: Born Again Season 2 Eyes Spring 2026 Premiere - Which Would Avoid Spider-Man 4 Continuity Issues
Daredevil: Born Again Directors Preview 'Very, Very, Very Violent' Season 1 Finale
Sorta.
Announced in September 2022 and originally pegged for a July 2024 release (but pushed back thrice), Thunderbolts* assembles 'an unconventional team of antiheroes' — Yelena Belova (played by Black Widow and Hawkeye's Florence Pugh), Bucky Barnes (MCU vet Sebastian Stan), Alexei Shostakov/Red Guardian (Black Widow's David Harbour), Ava Starr/Ghost (Ant-Man 2's Hannah John-Kamen), Antonia Dreykov/Taskmaster (Black Widow's Olga Kurylenko) and the aforementioned John Walker/U.S. Agent (Falcon and the Winter Soldier's Wyatt Russell).
And Bob (Outer Range's Lewis Pullman).
After finding themselves ensnared in a death trap set by soon-to-be-impeached CIA director Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Falcon and the Winter Soldier's Julia Louis-Dreyfus), this collection of castoffs — self-dubbed 'Thunderbolts,' after young Yelena's pee-wee soccer team — embark on a dangerous mission with (and sometimes against) Bob aka Sentry aka The Void, that forced them to confront the darkest corners of their pasts.
As the film draws to a close, after the team of antiheroes saves poor, beleaguered New York from yet another catastrophe, Yelena & Co. stumble out onto an outdoor rally stage, where Valentina announces them to the press and all onlookers as 'The New Avengers!' (The start of the closing credits confirms that this is what the asterisk in the Thunderbolts* 'placeholder' title was always about, as the asterisk disappears and the name Thunderbolts morphs into The New Avengers.)
What this means is that John Walker — a character that made his live-action debut on one of Disney+'s first Marvel series — has graduated to Avenger status. As has Bucky (also previously seen in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier), Yelena (previously seen in Hawkeye) and the others.
Provided, that is, that this 'New Avengers' team can withstand a copyright infringement complaint filed by Bucky's bestie Sam Wilson, who is currently assembling a new team of Avengers proper. Alexei is quick to offer one workaround (ending their team name with the letter Z instead of an S), but the legal squabble is quickly set aside when Yelena alerts the team to space crisis/incursion event, and footage of a spaceship (sporting the Fantastic Four logo) entering the atmosphere above New York….
The screen then confirms that 'The New Avengers.. and Bob… Will Return.' Which isn't brand-new news, given the early cast reveal for Avengers: Doomsday, now filming.
Want scoop on any Marvel TV show? Shoot an email to , and your question may be answered via Matt's Inside Line!
Best of TVLine
Yellowjackets Mysteries: An Up-to-Date List of the Series' Biggest Questions (and Answers?)
The Emmys' Most Memorable Moments: Laughter, Tears, Historical Wins, 'The Big One' and More
'Missing' Shows, Found! The Latest on Severance, Holey Moley, Poker Face, YOU, Primo, Transplant and 25+ Others
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
8 hours ago
"The Fantastic Four: First Steps" holds its lead atop the box office
LOS ANGELES -- LOS ANGELES (AP) — Marvel's first family stumbled in theaters in its second weekend, but still held on to the top spot at the box office. 'The Fantastic Four: First Steps' earned $40 million from 4,125 North American theaters, a 66% drop from a healthy $117.6 million debut. The film was accompanied by comedies 'The Bad Guys 2' and 'The Naked Gun" in the top three box office rankings. The superhero movie dipped significantly more than Marvel's previous film, 'Thunderbolts,' which took a 55% dive in its second weekend. 'First Steps' is the last major blockbuster of the summer. It added nearly $40 million internationally in its second weekend, bringing thefilm's global total to $369 million. The movie's box office drop off was surprising given its strong reviews, said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for the data firm Comscore. Though the movie's debut weekend may have given box office results a strong push toward the $4 billion summer benchmark, August is off to a slow start, he said. 'It's a tough lift, but we might be able to get there. It really means that all the films are gonna have to stand on their own,' Dergarabedian said. 'It's gonna be about getting great reviews, having that staying power, that longevity in the marketplace.' Newcomer comedy 'The Bad Guys 2' earned second place at the box office this weekend, with $22 million from 3,852 North American theaters. That was on par with projections and also in line with the first movie in the series, which brought in $23 million in 2022. Paramount's slapstick comedy, 'The Naked Gun,' also in its debut weekend, snagged the third box office spot, earning $17 million from 3,344 locations. Jim Orr, president of domestic distribution for Universal Pictures, said the solid debut for 'The Bad Guys 2,' coupled with strong audience reaction scores, 'should point to a very long, very successful run through not only the rest of the summer, but really, I think into the fall." James Gunn's 'Superman,' which opened four weekends ago and already crossed $550 million globally, earned $13.8 million domestically this weekend, taking the fourth spot. 'Jurassic World Rebirth' followed with $8.7 million. The horror movie 'Together' had a strong debut weekend, coming in at sixth place and earning $6.8 million domestically, proof that August is a month for edgier and off-beat films, Dergarabedian said. 'That's what this month is about. It's not just about box office," Dergarabedian said. "It's also about providing really interesting, rewarding movie-going experiences for audiences.' Dergarabedian said he expects highly-anticipated movies hitting theaters in the next few weeks — including 'Freakier Friday,' and Zach Cregger's horror movie 'Weapons' — to give August a needed boost. The box office is currently up 9.5% from last year. With final domestic figures being released Monday, this list factors in the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore: 1. 'The Fantastic Four: First Steps," $40 million. 2. 'The Bad Guys 2,' $22.2 million. 3. 'The Naked Gun,' $17 million. 4. 'Superman,' $13.8 million. 5. 'Jurassic World Rebirth,' $8.7 million. 6. 'Together,' $6.8 million. 7. 'F1: The Movie,' $4.1 million. 8. 'I Know What You Did Last Summer,' $2.7 million. 9. 'Smurfs,' $1.8 million. 10. 'How to Train Your Dragon,' $1.4 million.
Forbes
11 hours ago
- Forbes
The Three Crumbling Pillars Of The MCU: What's Going On?
It has not been a great year for Marvel, with three films ranging from 'not great' to 'pretty decent' at the box office in the space of Thunderbolts, Captain America: Brave New World and now Fantastic Four. Add onto that a couple shows that were lobbed out without much fanfare (Ironheart, Eyes of Wakanda) and a supposed fan-favorite that was underwatched (Daredevil: Born Again), and 2025 was not ideal. But of course, the general sense is that post-Endgame, the MCU has been lost at sea to some extent, and has not and likely will not reach the peak of Endgame and everything that came before. Why? You can say the ever-cited 'superhero fatigue' or the fact that movie tickets cost too much, but in the context of Marvel, it's more than that. In my view, there are three main pillars of the MCU that have had cracks shooting through them for years now. Too Many Releases, And Too Many Disconnected Releases Even Marvel realized eventually that dumping out something like three shows and three movies a year was overkill, and will allegedly tone that down from here, but it took more than a half decade to figure it out. It was overwhelming and many fans would just throw up their hands and be content to miss one film or another. Marvel has previously said that their movies felt too much like 'homework,' where'd you have to watch X other movie or show to know what's happening in the next movie. While that was true to some extent, The Marvels had three characters that required viewing of a first film, and two separate TV shows to know all the leads, that didn't happen all that often. Rather, it was that the stories were mostly disconnected, not leading toward any sort of ultimate goal that made any amount of sense. There was this vague idea for a minute that Kang would be the new Big Bad, first introduced in Loki, of all places, and then he showed up in the third Ant-Man movie, of all places, and was beaten by…ants. You can see the problem. Elsewhere, what did we have? Black Widow, a prequel film that should have been made years earlier for it to make sense. The Eternals, a moonshot full of people no one had ever heard of. Now more recently Thunderbolts, an assembled cast of C-listers from over the past 6-8 years or so. While they are throwing many of these characters together for the new Avengers movies, this has not been a coherent, connected plan. Abandoned Heroes This has two meanings, namely that post-Endgame, characters were simply lost. Iron Man was famously killed. Captain America time traveled, aged and has never been seen again. Hulk showed up in co-star and cameo roles at best, and was never the full focus of a film. Thor had one great movie and one so bad it killed hype for his character. There has not been an ability to build up a core cast like this again. Recently, Sam Wilson's new Captain America (mantle passing, in that case, was also a big problem) was tasked with assembling a new Avengers. Which would be…who, exactly? After all these years, it feels like we don't have a re-formed cast that makes any sense. Also by 'abandoned heroes,' we have one-and-done offerings. That would be the aforementioned Eternals, but also Shang-Chi, who was built up to be a hugely important character and then never got any sequel. None of these new-era heroes have gotten more than one movie focused on them specifically, something that was not the case with Iron Man, Captain America and Thor especially in the run-up to the various Avengers movies. The Nostalgia Trap Card One point here is that well, there are still huge-earning movies in this era, two of the highest being Spider-Man: No Way Home and Deadpool and Wolverine. These movies were entertaining, sure, but they both relied heavily on audience connections not with the story, but with the mere appearance of characters they used to love. In Spider-Man, of course, that was two previously Spider-Man in the form of Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield. In Deadpool and Wolverine, it's easy to even lose count, from Chris Evans taking up the mantle of Johnny Storm, Ben Affleck-era Jennifer Garner Elektra, Blade. They threw everything at the wall. You are eventually going to run out of nostalgia to pull from here. Even now, what's the big focus of the upcoming Avengers Doomsday? The return of a slew of FOX-era X-Men past the Deadpool and Wolverine ones, and then the return of Robert Downey Jr. himself, which I would consider a different form of nostalgia, in this case for a better era of the MCU itself, even if he's playing a different role. The story is that the MCU's biggest star is somehow back. Those are my takeaways from what's going on. There's more past that, but it's been rough, and I'm not sure when it's going to get better from here. Follow me on Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram. Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.
Chicago Tribune
11 hours ago
- Chicago Tribune
'The Fantastic Four: First Steps' holds its lead atop the box office
LOS ANGELES — Marvel's first family stumbled in theaters in its second weekend, but still held on to the top spot at the box office. 'The Fantastic Four: First Steps' earned $40 million from 4,125 North American theaters, a 66% drop from a healthy $117.6 million debut. The film was accompanied by comedies 'The Bad Guys 2' and 'The Naked Gun' in the top three box office rankings. The superhero movie dipped significantly more than Marvel's previous film, 'Thunderbolts,' which took a 55% dive in its second weekend. 'First Steps' is the last major blockbuster of the summer. It added nearly $40 million internationally in its second weekend, bringing thefilm's global total to $369 million. The movie's box office drop off was surprising given its strong reviews, said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for the data firm Comscore. Though the movie's debut weekend may have given box office results a strong push toward the $4 billion summer benchmark, August is off to a slow start, he said. 'It's a tough lift, but we might be able to get there. It really means that all the films are gonna have to stand on their own,' Dergarabedian said. 'It's gonna be about getting great reviews, having that staying power, that longevity in the marketplace.' Newcomer comedy 'The Bad Guys 2' earned second place at the box office this weekend, with $22 million from 3,852 North American theaters. That was on par with projections and also in line with the first movie in the series, which brought in $23 million in 2022. Paramount's slapstick comedy, 'The Naked Gun,' also in its debut weekend, snagged the third box office spot, earning $17 million from 3,344 locations. Jim Orr, president of domestic distribution for Universal Pictures, said the solid debut for 'The Bad Guys 2,' coupled with strong audience reaction scores, 'should point to a very long, very successful run through not only the rest of the summer, but really, I think into the fall.' James Gunn's 'Superman,' which opened four weekends ago and already crossed $550 million globally, earned $13.8 million domestically this weekend, taking the fourth spot. 'Jurassic World Rebirth' followed with $8.7 million. The horror movie 'Together' had a strong debut weekend, coming in at sixth place and earning $6.8 million domestically, proof that August is a month for edgier and off-beat films, Dergarabedian said. 'That's what this month is about. It's not just about box office,' Dergarabedian said. 'It's also about providing really interesting, rewarding movie-going experiences for audiences.' Dergarabedian said he expects highly-anticipated movies hitting theaters in the next few weeks — including 'Freakier Friday,' and Zach Cregger's horror movie 'Weapons' — to give August a needed boost. The box office is currently up 9.5% from last year. With final domestic figures being released Monday, this list factors in the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore: 1. 'The Fantastic Four: First Steps,' $40 million. 2. 'The Bad Guys 2,' $22.2 million. 3. 'The Naked Gun,' $17 million. 4. 'Superman,' $13.8 million. 5. 'Jurassic World Rebirth,' $8.7 million. 6. 'Together,' $6.8 million. 7. 'F1: The Movie,' $4.1 million. 8. 'I Know What You Did Last Summer,' $2.7 million. 9. 'Smurfs,' $1.8 million. 10. 'How to Train Your Dragon,' $1.4 million.
