Thunderbolts* Director On *That* Death Scene

Major Spoilers for Thunderbolts* are down below.

Summary

Thunderbolts* director explains [SPOLIER] death in the early part of the movie.
The demise is crucial for narrative and character dynamics.
Eliminating [SPOILER] early highlights Valentina's ruthlessness and paves the way to explore Yelena and Bob's relationship.

Thunderbolts* has finally been released, and Marvel fans have been talking about it nonstop. Thankfully, its director has addressed one of the major incidents in the anticipated MCU tentpole.

Marvel Studios is releasing three movies this year. Captain America: Brave New World was released earlier this year, and its second film, Thunderbolts*, just hit the cinemas. The newest MCU flick has received several positive reviews from fans. Among the things that many have been talking about is the shocking death of one of its stars.

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By Catherine Armecin Martin

Early on in Thunderbolts* Olga Kurylenko's Antonia Dreykov, aka Taskmaster, is almost immediately killed as Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen) shoots her in the head. The former shows no remorse, thinking she is only fulfilling her contract with Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus). She doesn't know that Valentina only tricks them — she, Taskmaster, Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), and U.S. Agent (Wyatt Russell) — to kill each other to eradicate the evidence of her illegal shadow ops. Jake Schreier, who directed the movie, spoke about the plot with Entertainment Weekly. According to him, they considered different ways of killing Taskmaster before ultimately deciding to give her a swift death. He told EW:

The decision to do it when we did it, we went through a lot of different versions of that, and we thought very carefully about it.

The filmmaker said they would have loved to work with Kurylenko and "have her on the team for longer." However, extending her presence would only make it difficult for them to find the "tonal balance" of her death. Also, Schreier admitted that they did not have the luxury of time to extend her plot and continue with the narrative they wanted to build, considering that films have limited runtime. Thunderbolts* has a two-hour and six-minute running time. Per Schreier, they wanted to highlight Yelena's relationship with Bob, aka Sentry (Lewis Pullman), in the film, which drives the narrative. So, they decided to kill Taskmaster early on. "In order to keep our tone and to build that team together, it actually felt best, even if it feels a little cold-blooded, to have that happen early," the director added.

Taskmaster Was Killed Off Early On In Thunderbolts* To Give Other Characters More Breathing Room

Taskmaster's death in Thunderbolts* isn't really surprising. Months before the film hit theaters, there were already rumors that the character would die. Kurylenko is present in most promotional materials and trailers. However, eagle-eyed fans notice that in the later scenes and trailers, her presence is minimal, suggesting a reduced role. Thus, fans speculate that she will die in the film. However, what many were not prepared to see was witnessing her early demise and the way she was brutally killed. Of course, her death disappointed many because some expected she would be part of Thunderbolts*. She also has an unresolved story arc and a complex backstory that deserves redemption but remains unexplored. This made some feel the character's potential was underutilized. So, it's understandable why many were frustrated with Taskmaster's premature demise.

Taskmaster's death serves multiple purposes within the story. It establishes the stakes that everyone is expendable and highlights Valentina's ruthless side. The incident is a clear example of her manipulative nature and cold-blooded tactics. But on the brighter side, eliminating Taskmaster early in the film allows the narrative to concentrate on Yelena and Sentry's evolving dynamics, which is the central focus of the movie.