Kevin Feige Made Last-Minute Change to Taskmaster's MCU Death

Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige made a last-minute change to Taskmaster's death in Thunderbolts* that changed the entire nature of the sequence. Olga Kurylenko's Antonia Dreykov (also known as Taskmaster) returned to the MCU for Thunderbolts* for the first time since 2021's Black Widow. While she was included in a lot of the movie's marketing materials, Taskmaster was killed very early on in the film, which has proven to be quite controversial amongst fans.

Taskmaster's death in Thunderbolts* almost looked different before Kevin Feige stepped in and made an adjustment to her sendoff. According to Thunderbolts* director Jake Schreier, he presented the scene to Feige where Taskmaster is killed, wanting to know if the Marvel Studios president had any feedback. Feige ultimately changed the timing of the gunshot that killed Taskmaster, resulting in her death being more shocking to the audience.

While appearing on The Midnight Boys podcast (shared via YouTube), Thunderbolts* director Jake Schreier discussed the process of making the film and how he understood he wasn't only making the film for himself, but for other people too:

"I want to make things that I would go see, that I would think were interesting, and that were cool… but then the other thing is also, it's not just about me. The way that these movies get made, and I don't feel like it takes anything away from what I did to say that, it's the efforts of so many and you're developing this with so many people like you're in there with Eric [Pearson] and with Brian [Chapek] and Sunny and Joanna [Calo] and Kevin [Feige] and Lou [D’Esposito]."

Schreier then mentioned Kevin Feige as well, revealing exactly how the Marvel boss changed Taskmaster's death in Thunderbolts*:

"And part of what was fun about it is that if you put something interesting in front of Kevin, he is so good at working with it and he's so good in the edit room. Like, ‘Oh, you actually want to land that beat here, so it's kind of off the beat with the music so it feels more like a surprise when Antonia gets shot in the head.’ And like the next test screening, all of a sudden, you got the gasps that we weren't getting in the one before that."

The Thunderbolts* director then mentioned that he understood he was meshing "[his] own perspective" with Feige's perspective, and hoped that it would be "a good movie" that would please all audiences:

"I think when you've got the person there who's made all the best of the most classic versions of these thing,s and then he's also saying, ‘Make it different,’ and you're bringing him stuff like… I come from a little bit of a different world that like he speaks for a certain side of the fandom. I love a lot of these movies, I speak from my own perspective of what I like in them, I think like if everyone comes with that and you can still say, at the end of the day, that you all like what you're making, you agree that there's something interesting about it, then you just hope it's a good movie and you hope people like it."

In the interview, Schreier also talked about what he felt set him apart from other filmmakers in Feige's eyes. One thing the director mentioned about Feige was that he always felt like the movie was never truly finished, and that something could always be improved, particularly using the motto, "always be plus-ing:"

"I think it's more… I mean, it's good to have a take on what you're doing. I don't know that you have to articulate that full take going into the process, because part of the way Marvel works and what Kevin's so good at is that form of collaboration and this idea that like… I think he calls it like, ‘always be plus-ing…’ It's never done."

Schreier expanded upon his comments, revealing that he worked well with Feige since he went "in every meeting" with the mentality that the crew could "make [the movie] better:"

"The one thing you can't do in a Marvel meeting is ever show up and be like, ‘I think we're good. I think this is it.’ Kevin's always going to look at what you've got whether it's a script, or concept art, or an edit and say, ‘Some good stuff in here. Some things we could improve. Let's get in it.’ It doesn't matter whether it was the best or the worst. And so if you meet that also with coming in every meeting being like, ‘I also think we can make this better. I think it's good but I think we can improve it,’ then I think that probably works the best."

Schreier's approach to Thunderbolts* and his collaboration with Feige most definitely paid off, as Thunderbolts* is one of the highest-rated MCU films of all time.

Thunderbolts* officially released in theaters on May 2. Alongside Kurylenko, the film also starred Florence Pugh as Yelena Belova, Hannah John-Kamen as Ghost, Wyatt Russell as John Walker, Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes, David Harbour as Red Guardian, Lewis Pullman as Sentry, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Valentina Allegra de Fontaine.

Did Marvel Studios Make the Right Choice Killing Taskmaster?

As Schreier mentioned, Taskmaster's death came as a bit of a shock since it happened so early in the film. However, many don't question the shock value of the decision, but rather if it was the right one for the franchise's future.

On the surface, it seemed as though Taskmaster's death was simply done to get rid of the character, alluding that there was really no place for her on the team. This also seemed to be the case since Taskmaster was not received well when she made her debut in Black Widow. Ultimately, the decision to kill off the character didn't stem from that, though, and was instead included to assure the audience that no character was safe from death at any point throughout the film.

This method of storytelling is something that other projects have done. Game of Thrones is probably the most notable TV show of all time for killing characters off unexpectedly, which in turn made the audience know at all times that any character could be in jeopardy.

Killing Taskmaster so early in the film established that any of the Thunderbolts team members could also meet their end at any point. Of course, Taskmaster's character arc could have been continued throughout Thunderbolts* or at some point in a future project, but her death wasn't meaningless and did serve an effective purpose in the film.