Thunderbolts managed to keep its biggest secret — the fact that its true title is The New Avengers — under wraps until a few days after release, although fans who didn’t catch the movie on opening weekend may be frustrated. But not every plot twist was able to stay hush-hush. In fact, one of the movie’s first big twists was signaled from the get-go. This shocker, however, was supposed to be anything but, as the original plan involved a different member of the team who didn’t make the final cut.
Spoilers for Thunderbolts ahead.
Thunderbolts co-writer Eric Pearson revealed to Polygon that while most of the final product is what he put on the page, there was one major difference involving Antonia Dreykov, aka Taskmaster. Black Widow’s power-mimicking villain was poised to be a full member of the anti-hero team, but is shot dead by Ava Starr early on. That’s why Taskmaster is conspicuously absent from much of the marketing material.
According to Pearson, this wasn’t always the plan. “It was decided after my work,” he told Polygon. “When I sat down to watch the first cut, one thing was totally different and shocked the hell out of me, and it was that. Everything else, I was like, ‘Yeah, that’s the movie that I wrote!’ But that decision…”
Pearson also wrote Black Widow, so wanting to include that movie’s villain makes perfect sense. Originally, Taskmaster was supposed to have a running joke where Antonia, struggling with memory loss, kept attacking John Walker.
“They would be discussing the plan of how to get out [of the vault], and she’d just go after him again,” Pearson said. “And they’d all have to pig-pile on each other, and pull her off, and be like, ‘No, we know each other! We’ve had this conversation before!’”
The sudden murder of Taskmaster may seem heartless, but it proves that none of these heroes are strangers to bloodshed, and that all of them have become unfeeling over time. Still, it’s tempting to imagine could have been with a more complete team. What could an Avenger who knows all the original Avengers’ powers do? Unfortunately, the answer was left on the cutting room floor.
