Thunderbolts, why does the next Marvel movie now have an asterisk in the title?

The anticipation for the new film is growing Thunderboltsdue out in May 2025. Indeed, for the new film Thunderbolts*. You saw correctly, with the asterisk. The rebranding may not seem very striking, but in the Marvel Cinematic Universe nothing happens by chance and hypotheses have already been unleashed on the web as to the reason for this minimal addition: “Yes, you may have noticed the asterisk in Thunderbolts. It’s the official title now and we won’t say anything more until the film comes out”, said the boss of Marvel Studios Kevin Feige. Announced in June 2022, the new film will bring together a new group of anti-heroes, progressively introduced in recent years in series such as The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and movies like Black Widow. Figures like Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), Red Guardian (David Harbour) and US Agent (Wyatt Russell) they will reunite under the control of Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia-Louis Dreyfus), a government agent with perhaps not entirely clear intentions.

The 36th chapter of the MCU, directed by Jake Schreier and written by Eric Pearson, Lee Sung Jin and Joanna Calo (the latter two will meet the director again after their common commitment in Beef: The clash), is for now still shrouded in mystery, and this enigmatic asterisk only increases speculation on the possible twists and turns of its plot. L’hypothesis that online experts repeat with more insistence is that of an alternative title: Thunderbolt*according to them, would actually just be a cover for the real title of the film, which would instead be Dark Avengers. The events of this film, in fact, could be an opportunity to introduce the “negative” version of the Avengers: in the comics the Dark Avengers are a group of villains and anti-heroes who progressively take the place of titular heroes such as Wolverine, Captain Marvel and Charles Xavier. Another fact to note is that the character of Thunderbolt Ross (now played by Harrison Ford, after the death of the previous interpreter William Hurt), founder of the Thunderbolts team in the comics, will be central in Captain America: New World Orderwhich will be released just before, in February 2025: is the asterisk a reference to him?

It’s difficult to get answers at the moment. Marvel is certainly trying to play the game his cards in a skilful way to revive the destiny of a cinematic universe that in recent years has shown many signs of tiredness. The change of title of Thunderbolts* was announced during the CinemaCon Las Vegas, the annual event in which the majors show their juiciest previews. Even the first minutes of the preview galvanized the public Deadpool & Wolverine with Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman, arriving in July 2024. As regards Disney more generally, the previews of Inside Out 2of the live-action film based on The Lion King Mufasa and the latest news on the Pixar sequel Oceania 2.