Marvel’s Thunderbolts* is riding high at the box office, and its impact on the MCU has a lot of fans talking – so who are The New Avengers?
Directed by Jake Schreier (Beef, Robot & Frank), the superhero film sees a group of misfit antiheroes caught in a deadly trap and forced to work together on a high-stakes mission.
The ensemble cast includes Florence Pugh as Yelena Belova, Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes, Wyatt Russell as John Walker, Olga Kurylenko as Taskmaster, David Harbour as Red Guardian, Hannah John-Kamen as Ghost, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Valentina Allegra de Fontaine.
Thunderbolts* was released in cinemas worldwide on May 1.
In a four-star review of the film, NME wrote: “By the end, even the clunky-looking asterisk in the film’s title makes sense. Thunderbolts* doesn’t so much reinvent the wheel as remember what put the wheels on this bandwagon in the first place: an epic blend of thrills, spills and psychological ills. It’s the most fun the MCU’s been in years.”
Who are The New Avengers?
*Warning: Spoilers ahead*
In the days since the film’s release, Marvel have been updating official posters and promotional materials for Thunderbolts*, apparently revealing that the true title of the film is The New Avengers.
The twist is also embedded in the film itself. In the closing moments, after the team defeats Sentry (Lewis Pullman) – a god-like being created through Valentina’s secret experiments – they confront her. Cornered and seeking to protect her position, Valentina improvises: she brings the team into a televised press conference and publicly rebrands them as The New Avengers, claiming this was her plan all along.
The film ends with a title card, flashing the Thunderbolts* name for a second, before it is scratched out to reveal the film’s true title: The New Avengers.
Cast members, including Sebastian Stan, have also been seen replacing posters for Thunderbolts* with ones reading The New Avengers.
Thunderbolts* (or The New Avengers), sets the stage for the next phase of the MCU. At the end of Brave New World, Captain America/Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) is seen forming his own Avengers team. Both teams are due to appear in Avengers: Doomsday, which will see the shock return of Robert Downey Jr. as the villainous Doctor Doom.
Not all fans of the MCU are thrilled with the transition of Thunderbolts* into The New Avengers, however, with some lamenting the fact that Marvel are spoiling the twist for people who have yet to see the film.