Fresh off the digital release of Thunderbolts* (coming to physical media July 29), director Jake Schreier sat down with Variety to unpack the Marvel film’s biggest surprises – from that game-changing asterisk reveal to the controversial fate of Olga Kurylenko’s Taskmaster. The asterisk, which transforms the title into Thunderbolts: The New Avengers* in the film’s climax, still feels surreal to Schreier after three years of development. “In my head, I still think ‘Thunderbolts,’ just because we lived with it for so long,” he admits. “We didn’t even put ‘New Avengers’ into the scripts on the day that it was said, just to keep it a secret.”
The decision to kill off Taskmaster – a move that sparked fan outcry – was one of Schreier’s toughest calls. “It’s not something we did lightly,” he explains, acknowledging Kurylenko’s performance while defending the narrative necessity: “To have that movie take place with no one showing what [being contract killers] means didn’t really feel like it would land with as much impact.” The director reveals the choice came during post-strike script revisions, when the team felt the story needed higher stakes.
Schreier also sheds light on the film’s unconventional marketing, including a trailer that cheekily highlighted crew members with A24 pedigrees. What began as an on-set joke – “my assistant and I made this fake trailer” – caught Marvel president Kevin Feige’s attention. “I didn’t expect it to go that far,” Schreier laughs, though he appreciates how it spotlighted his crew: “It’s very rare that you get to talk about your crew… it was nice, even if it was tongue-in-cheek.”
Reflecting on the film’s theatrical run, Schreier remains philosophical about box office performance in the streaming era. “You can’t even take for granted that you’re going to get a theatrical release,” he notes, valuing how theaters create shared cultural moments. With the physical release imminent, he hopes audiences will continue discovering the film’s unique blend of superhero action and character-driven stakes – asterisk and all.
The Pop Blog general news and updates, mostly from press releases and conferences.