The secondThunderboltstrailer offers dire prospects for one member of the titular MCU team. Marvel unveiled various trailers forthe MCU’s upcoming releasesat D23 Brazil 2024, includingCaptain America: Brave New WorldandThunderbolts— two of Marvel Studios' biggest 2025 projects alongsideThe Fantastic Four: First Stepsand Disney+ shows likeWhat If…?season 3. Ahead ofThunderbolts*' May 2025 release date, the film’s premise is clear: Valentina Allegra de Fontaine assembles a group of assassins against their will to complete a deadly mission.
The MCU’s Thunderbolts are quite different from the original Marvel Comics team. Instead of a supervillain team posing as the Avengers' replacement, Valentina Allegra de Fontaine’s Thunderbolts are a ragtag group of former criminals who are pressured into working for her. This change makes the team more similar to later iterations like Norman Osborn’s secret ops team, which quickly transforms into the Dark Avengers. Such a transformation could bean explanation for the asterisk in theThunderbolts*title, revealed at the end of the movie.
Thunderbolts* New Trailer Suggests Taskmaster Doesn’t Make It Past The Movie’s First Battle
Taskmaster Barely Appears In The Second Thunderbolts* Trailer
The secondThunderboltstrailers shows how US Agent, Yelena Belova, and Red Guardian meet Bucky Barnes. Other scenes featured in the trailer offer a glimpse at the team’s first encounter in a vault, as well as a fight sequence in the same spot in Manhattan where the Avengers teamed up to fight the Chitauri. Curiously,Taskmaster only appears in one scene of theThunderboltstrailer, fighting her teammates in the vault before Bob introduces himself. Taskmaster’s absence in every other scene suggests that she will not survive for too long.
Taskmaster is also fully masked in the very few shots she’s in during theThunderbolts*trailer, and she’s the only one wearing a mask in the first official poster.
Since theThunderbolts*trailers only feature Taskmaster in the scene where the titular anti-heroes meet each other for the first time, it’s highly likely that their first battle will result in at least one casualty.Bob’s possible transformation into Sentrycould also be the reason why Taskmaster dies before the Thunderbolts' first official mission together. While Taskmaster is powerful enough to fend off her fellow Thunderbolts and smart enough to escape Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, it would be impossible for her to survive an encounter with Sentry.
Taskmaster’s Death in Thunderbolts* Would Be A Bigger Waste Than Her Introduction In Black Widow
Thunderbolts* Is A Second Chance For Taskmaster After Black Widow Didn’t Do The Character Justice
Phase 4’sBlack Widowintroduced Taskmaster but kept her identity a secret until the climax, where the villain was revealed to be General Dreykov’s daughter Antonia — a survivor of Natasha Romanoff’s failed attack on Dreykov.Black Widow’s villain twist answered what Natasha meant when she referred to her Budapest mission and added an extra layer of personal conflict to the story by making the movie’s main antagonist a victim of the protagonist. However,Black Widowremoved almost every familiar element from Taskmaster, who became a completely mute and emotionless antagonist with little personality.
Thunderbolts* Can Never Repeat The Comics' Biggest Twist (But Will Need To Match It)
The MCU’s Thunderbolts* film won’t be able to recreate the Marvel comic’s biggest plot twist, but it can find a way to pay homage to it.
After an unremarkable debut,Thunderboltsoffers Taskmaster the chance to become a three-dimensional character with a personality of her own. The fun interactions between teammates seen in theThunderboltstrailers could allow Taskmaster to star in memorable scenes and develop relationships with her fellow anti-heroes. By the end of the film, Antonia Dreykov could be a much closer adaptation of the original comic book character, who’s known for his volatile temperament and his genuine passion for being an assassin-for-hire.
Taskmaster’s Death Could Result In A Better Version Of The Character
Thunderbolts* Could Kill Off Antonia Dreykov Before Introducing Anthony Masters
Although it would finish cementing Antonia Dreykov as a one-dimensional character with no major influence on the MCU,Thunderboltscould kill off Taskmaster in order to open up a spot for the original comic book character. Taskmaster’s death could raise the stakes for the Thunderbolts and force them to play nice with each other. Either at the end ofThunderboltsin the form of a post-credits scene or in a future MCU project, Anthony Masters could take up the Taskmaster mantle and start working as a hitman for a variety of MCU villains like Kingpin, Baron Zemo, or the new Ten Rings organization.
After Antonia Dreykov’s death inThunderbolts*, the MCU could introduce a live-action version of Anthony Masters
In the comics, Anthony Masters possesses the innate ability to replicate anybody’s skills and talents. Anthony also took a copy of the Super Soldier serum, which caused his mind to constantly overwrite his memories. Becoming “Taskmaster”, Anthony became a mercenary and set up an assassin academy. Since then, Taskmaster has accomplished a wide variety of feats such as training John Walker to become Captain America and singlehandedly fighting Thor and Deadpool. After Antonia Dreykov’s death inThunderbolts*, the MCU could introduce a live-action version of Anthony Masters.
