A new photo from the theatrical closer of Marvel Studios' Phase 5, Thunderbolts*, confirmed that one villain's fate was originally very different from what appeared in the final film. Jake Schreier's 2025 MCU epic saw some of the franchise's oft-forgotten superheroes and villains team up in a Suicide Squad-like effort to take on Julia Louis-Dreyfus' nefarious Valentina Allegra de Fontaine. Part of this crew was the Black Widow big bad Taskmaster (played by Olga Kurylenko), who was featured prominently in marketing for the movie despite not being in it for long.
Kurylenko's former MCU villain appeared early in the Phase 5 film as Florence Pugh's Yelena Belova, Wyatt Russell's US Agent, and Hannah John-Kamen's Ghost met for the first time, forming the foundation of what would become the Thunderbolts (and eventually New Avengers) team. However, Taskmaster was the lone character to lose her life in this initial stand-off, meaning that despite appearing on posters and in various trailers for the film, the character ultimately only got a couple of minutes of screentime.
This 'killing Taskmaster in the first act' move may not have always been the plan, though, and a new piece of concept art may indicate exactly that.
The piece of Thunderbolts* movie art was shared on Marvel Studios concept artist Aleksi Briclot's personal Instagram. It shows the Thunderbolts team diving out of a skyscraper window to grab a falling Yelene Belova.
The entire team, as featured in the movie, is there, although so is Taskmaster. Judging from the setting of this scene, it seems to be in a city environment. The only city featured significantly in the film was New York City during its final act, long after Taskmaster had perished at the hands of her Thunderbolts teammates.
This lends credence to theories suggesting Taskmaster was initially meant to survive much longer into the Thunderbolts* movie (if not for the whole thing).
Kurylenko indicated as such in a May 2025 interview with ComicBookMovie.com. In that conversation, the Taskmaster actress teased that she was "there until the end" in a prior version of the movie's script, but, after the film was reworked during the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike, her role was significantly cut down:
"In the first script, my character was... She was there until the end, but it wasn't the same script at all. After the strike, the script had nothing to do with it. They changed the concept, they changed the story, the places, where it took place. It wasn't the same anymore. It's a pity. It was a cool character."
Thunderbolts* came to theaters on May 2 earlier this year, introducing audiences to its team of morally ambiguous anti-heroes led by Florence Pugh's Yelena Belova and Sebastian Stan's Bucky Barnes. The film received rave reviews, with some calling it a return to form for Marvel Studios after the lackluster reception of Captain America: Brave New World.
The Thunderbolts* characters are just getting started in the super-powered series, as they have already been confirmed to appear return in Phase 6's upcoming Avengers: Doomsday.
Why Was Taskmaster Killed Off In Thunderbolts?
Seeing star Olga Kurylenko talk about what could have been with her MCU in Thunderbolts*, paired now with concept art featuring her Taskmaster as a proper member of the movie's central team, will almost surely have fans conflicted about what ended up happening to the character in the final film.
Instead of getting the moment in the sunlight that names like US Agent, Red Guardian, and Ghost got to enjoy as a part of the team, she was gone almost as quickly as she arrived.
Some fans had hoped that the 2025 Jake Schreier team-up film could serve as a redemption arc for Taskmaster after her initial reception in Black Widow was lackluster. That, however, never came to pass, and the character was killed off in the movie's first act.
And while some will bristle at the fact that Taskmaster was so unceremoniously taken off the board in the new movie, there is a good narrative reason for it to happen.
Taskmaster's death set the stakes perfectly for the rest of the film, making it feel like any one of these 'thought to be disposable' characters could bite the dust at any moment.
Someone had to die, and Taskmaster was sadly the casualty of that sad reality. Or else, the rest of the movie would not have been nearly as tense as it ended up being.
