Even the ‘Thunderbolts*’ Screenwriter Was Surprised by That Death

Movies get made, at least, three times: when they’re written, when they’re filmed, and when they’re edited. And that’s, like, if everything goes really well. Plenty of movies have been made that are more closely aligned with the script initially written, but that is few and far between. Things are always in flux when making a movie; sometimes they can change, change some more, and then change again. I’m not even talking about reshoots, just general filmmaking. A location can become unavailable, an actor can get recast or their character removed from the film, or a story arc could just not make any sense once you get it in front of a camera. That applies even if you are a multi-billion-dollar studio (and sometimes, in those cases, more so).

***You can likely already guess from the headline, but there will be spoilers for Thunderbolts* in this article. And more than the spoiler that Marvel has already put out there. Which, as someone who has now seen the movie, I can confirm is a spoiler, and was dumb of them to put out there (I still liked the movie though).***

Thunderbolts* tells a story about a team of broken individuals teaming up when they are all marked for death by their former employer. It’s got elements of James Gunn affairs, like Guardians of the Galaxy and The Suicide Squad, with, I would argue, a better handle on its sense of humor, which is used more efficiently instead of feeling overwhelming. I love Gunn, but I’m usually more a fan of the heart he infuses as opposed to what he thinks is funny. Thunderbolts* brings the heart in thematically sound ways. Its biggest issue is how it works as an ensemble.

Florence Pugh is front and center in the film, which is great. She’s a wonderful actor, and Yelena Belova, the sister of Black Widow, is one of the best MCU characters to arrive post-Endgame. David Harbous is having a great time as her father, a Russian super soldier. Wyatt Russell gets a lot to work with as a disgraced Captain America. Sebastian Stan delivers an always wonderful performance as Bucky Barnes, getting one of the coolest action sequences in the film which also serves as a callback to his character’s history. Lewis Pullman and Julia Louis-Dreyfus have great chemistry and lay the ground for what’s next in the MCU. Even Geraldine Viswanathan, who had a pretty small role, gets to make the most of it.

Olga Kurylenko and Hannah John-Kamen are also in the movie.

My dismissive nature in mentioning these two is not a slight against either. They both do the best they can with what is given, but what is given is next to nothing. To be fair, I do not like the Ant-Man movies and have never desired to revisit them. John-Kamen’s character, Ghost, is introduced in the second Ant-Man, which I loathed, and I remember almost nothing about her. Despite other characters revealing details about their backstory, we learn little about Ghost aside from her powers. She’s just there to make the occasional quip because when the MCU doesn’t know what to do with someone, they make them Tony Stark.

Kurylenko plays Taskmaster, who first appeared in Black Widow, and she gets even less to do. He character is killed shortly after being introduced as a way to raise the stakes of the film. But that wasn’t always the plan, something screenwriter Eric Pearson recently explained to The Hollywood Reporter. “That is the one biggest change,” Pearson noted about Taskmaster’s death. “I didn’t get to go to set and finish out this one. I was actually back in Burbank working on Fantastic Four at that point. When I saw the first cut, the biggest change was Taskmaster taking that shot, and I was shocked. In my drafts, Antonia Dreykov/Taskmaster lived out the movie, and she had a bit of a subplot with Ava/Ghost. They’d both been raised in labs, and Ava big-sistered her into how to break free and be her own person.”

It makes sense that Ghost’s story was tied to Taskmaster’s and done away with as a result of her death. It sucks, but it makes sense. Pearson also said he thinks the death works. But it’s a bummer that two characters were sacrificed for the price of one. Thunderbolts* works because the characters feel rich and resonate thematically with the story. It’s able to get a lot done on simple backstories and talented actors. Another strong story could have given us even more to relate to, but I guess a death did keep us on our toes.