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Omelet spoke to David Harbour at D23 Expo Brazil about Thunderbolts*, where the Red Guardian actor opened up about the meaning behind the asterik. “I think it relates to the whole movie,” he said. Harbour then related a story about how people will go on social media to correct misspellings while using an asterik to point out the error. “Things may not be what they seem to be,” he teased.
Are the Thunderbolts really the Dark Avengers?
The big theory floating around is the end of Thunderbolts* will reveal that their name isn’t Thunderbolts at all, and they are secretly the Dark Avengers. Marvel published a Dark Avengers series during its Dark Reign publishing initiative that spun out of Secret Invasion. After Norman Osborn became the public face of the hero initiative to stop the invasion of Skrulls on Earth, Norman was put in charge of S.H.I.E.L.D. and renamed it H.A.M.M.E.R.
[RELATED: Who Are the Thunderbolts* in the MCU? Explaining the Marvel Team]
One of Norman’s next move was to form his own team of Avengers, but instead of picking heroes to stand beside him, he dressed villains up as your favorite members of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. Among those chosen were Daken as Wolverine, Mac Gargan’s Venom as Spider-Man, Moonstone as Ms. Marvel, Noh-Varr as Captain Marvel, Bullseye as Hawkeye, Sentry, and Norman Osborn as Iron Patriot.
With no official Avengers team operating in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, that leaves an opening that Valentina Allegra de Fontaine may be looking to exploit. The Thunderbolts* trailer revealed Valentina is the new owner of Avengers Tower, so she’s already making herself at home.
Directed by Jake Schreier, Thunderbolts* stars Florence Pugh, Sebastian Stan, David Harbour, Wyatt Russell, Olga Kurylenko, Lewis Pullman, Geraldine Viswanathan, Chris
Bauer, Wendell Edward Pierce, with David Harbour, with Hannah John-Kamen, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus. The movie premieres May 2, 2025.
