At this point, we’d want to caution about spoilers, but if you’ve already read the headline, gotten this far into the story or seen the movie (or any of the announcements about it), you likely know what we’re going to say…
Yes, after months of speculation, Marvel Studios made it official, having the movie’s cast ripping a section of the poster away to show the new –– or rather, alternate –– title for the movie, ‘The New Avengers.’
There’s also this one, which shows Sebastian Stan –– who plays Bucky Barnes, AKA The Winter Soldier in the movie ––– pasting a whole new poster over a bus stop panel. If the acting gigs dry up, perhaps he's found a new job!
Let’s be completely clear here, though –– despite the change happening on posters and some cinema marquees, it’s perfectly okay to still call the movie ‘Thunderbolts*’ since the ‘New Avengers’ thing is really more of a marketing gimmick and a way to link the movie to the MCU’s biggest and most reliable franchise name.
And the company waited until the movie was out to make the big announcement, having those who had seen it at earlier press and other screenings keep the reveal –– which happens at the end of the movie –– a secret.
‘Thunderbolts*’ has performed solidly at the box office so far. While it didn’t reach the same initial level as ‘Captain America: Brave New World’ ($76 million compared to ‘Cap’s $88 million opening weekend), the new movie has certainly enjoyed better reviews and audience reactions, pointing to a likely healthier run on the charts.
Globally, ‘Thunderbolts*’ finished the weekend with $162.1 million, including $86.1 million from international markets.
It’s also generating more positive word of mouth for the MCU, something that Marvel could do with following the negativity surrounding some other recent releases on screens both big and small.
While the movie behemoth shows no sign of stopping, it certainly hasn’t seen the sort of reactions as in earlier phases of its existence.
What’s the history of the ‘Thunderbolts*’ asterisk?
Marvel Studios' Kevin Feige at Disney's 2024 CinemaCon Presentation. Photo: Disney.
When it was first announced, the movie was simply known as ‘Thunderbolts.’ Zero asterisk to be found lurking.
It was first announced to be in development back in 2022, with director Jake Schreier reported as on board. At that year’s Comic-Con, Marvel boss Kevin Feige confirmed the movie, with that title, and no asterisk.
But later, we learned that the movie would be boasting the little addition. To maintain the mystery, Feige declined to explain it at CinemaCon in 2023:
“Yes, you’ll notice the asterisk on ‘Thunderbolts.’ That is the official title of ‘Thunderbolts’ and we won’t talk more about that until after the movie comes out.”
And here we are!
Here’s director Schreier talking to The New York Times about the change:
“It felt like, if Val is also trying to pull a switcheroo and sell the New Avengers to the world, we could do that, too. Especially given that the asterisk has been on the movie for a year, hopefully it doesn’t feel sweaty — it feels like this was a plan and we built up to it. It’s so interesting in this world, and Kevin talks about it sometimes, where sometimes they wanted things to leak and they don’t. I think we all assumed that it would be a bigger part of the conversation already, so it’ll be interesting to see what happens.”
What is the plot of ‘Thunderbolts*’/ ‘The New Avengers’?
A group of dangerous, unstable antiheroes and castoffs are set up on a doomed mission by a government operative (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), only to find themselves confronting a powerful new menace that threatens Earth.
When will we see the ‘New Avengers’ characters again?
We suppose we could have seen the Avengers thing coming, since a group of the ‘Thunderbol…’ Sorry, ‘The New Avengers’ cast were among the names announced during Marvel’s big ‘Avengers: Doomsday' chairmageddon casting announcement video.
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