Polygon.com / 02.05.25

What Thunderbolts* means for the future of MCU team-ups

You can either choose to be intrigued by the playful asterisk at the end of Thunderbolts*, or you can be annoyed by it. Whichever side of that aisle you come down on, though, its clear that Marvel hoped it would raise some questions. Thunderbolts* answers those questions in the form of a surprisingly fun updated title card that arrives as the movie fades to black. That card leaves its own lingering questions, though, particularly about the future of MCU team-ups and the comics theyre based on. Those are what were here to answer. [Ed. note: This post contains spoilers for Thunderbolts*.] If youve watched Thunderbolts*, you know that the asterisk is there so the movie can pull off its final joke: The heroes at the heart of the movie call their makeshift team the Thunderbolts as a jokey reference to the lousy pee-wee soccer team Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh) was in as a kid. But by the end of the movie, Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) has relabeled them as the New Ave...
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