Almost two decades into the Marvel Cinematic Universe's dominant reign as the box office champions and there are no signs that it plans on relinquishing that title anytime soon. Yes, there were some signs of weakness in the franchise's new Multiverse Saga just a few years ago but Marvel Studios has refocused its efforts to make for a stronger, tighter, and more edge-of-seat product.
That is reflected in its most recent outing. Thunderbolts* has taken the world by storm, with critics and audiences uniting in their shared love for the film. It currently holds an 88% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes' Tomatometer and an even more impressive 95% audience score. Yep, people are loving the lesser-known heroes of Thunderbolts*, which just once again proves that Marvel is capable of anything that it sets its mind to.
*** This article contains MAJOR SPOILERS from Thunderbolts*. If you haven't seen the movie and plan on seeing it in theaters, don't read on. ***
The franchise isn't afraid to surprise audiences either, ensuring that it keeps fans on the edges of their seats. It also showcased that in just the past few days when it did the unthinkable.
The MCU kills off a Marvel Comics legend in eye-widening moment
We've said that Marvel Studios isn't afraid to shock audiences (this is the same studio that produced Avengers: Infinity War!) and that was clearer than ever in Thunderbolts*, which features a surprising death. In the film's opening act, Taskmaster is suddenly gunned down by Ghost as all of the future Thunderbolts face off against each other after being manipulated by Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine. In a single second, one of the film's main characters is off the board.
Portrayed by Olga Kurylenko, Antonia Dreykov made her MCU debut in 2021's Black Widow as a gender-swapped version of Taskmaster. Although fans were somewhat indifferent to the original spin on the character, it was a strong twist that added more nuance to Black Widow's story. With that, it was surprising to see the character killed off so suddenly - so brutally - in the first 30 minutes of her second film, especially given the poignance of her storyline and how it related to the original Black Widow, Natasha Romanoff.
It might not be surprising to those who have been keeping up with the Thunderbolts* release strategy. Every time a new trailer was released for the film, Taskmaster had less appearances. It also became clear that one of the shots in the early trailer simply super-imposed the character into a scene that she wasn't involved in (as subsequent trailers didn't feature her in that same shot). It has made for a pretty interesting journey as fans predicted when - or if - the character might die in the film.
But it's still pretty shocking all things considered. Yes, Antonia was of such importance to Natasha's arc in Black Widow, but even aside from that, Taskmaster is such a major character in the Marvel Comics, so it's unexpected that the MCU adaptation would meet such a quick, unfortunate end. Granted, this might open up a future opportunity for Marvel Studios to introduce the original, comic-accurate version of Taskmaster into the MCU.
Anthony "Tony" Masters is a complicated individual with such potential and he is waiting for a live-action portrayal in the franchise - that's one of the main reasons why fans were conflicted over Marvel's decision to introduce an original version of the character instead. So we might see him one day. That still doesn't make up for the particularly questionable decision to kill off the version that they do have.
Thunderbolts* writer Eric Pearson recently revealed to Polygon that Antonia was supposed to be a much bigger part of the movie, bonding with Ava Starr (a.k.a. Ghost) and continually trying to kill John Walker due to her memory loss resulting in her forgetting that they had become friends. Honestly, that would have served the character far better than what she got.