Contains spoilers for “Thunderbolts*”

Marvel Studios has ingeniously assembled supporting characters from “Black Widow,” “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier,” and “Ant-Man and the Wasp” to create the next superhero team — the Thunderbolts. Impressively, it works very well, with “Thunderbolts*” being praised by Looper as one of the most robust Marvel movies in recent memory. It’s an emotionally resonant tale about mental health struggles, primarily showcased through Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh) as she grapples with her life’s direction, and Bob, also known as Sentry (Lewis Pullman), who is battling the dark facets of his own psyche, referred to as the Void.

However, everyone has the opportunity to shine and demonstrate that regardless of past experiences, redemption is achievable. That is, unless you’re the unfortunate member of the Thunderbolts who is untimely killed off before the action truly gets underway. “Thunderbolts*” features a considerable amount of death, though it generally stems from secondary elements, such as Yelena recalling her involvement in the demise of a young classmate in the Red Room or Valentina’s (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) inadvertent role in her father’s murder during her childhood.

Nevertheless, there’s a principal death in “Thunderbolts*” that merits analysis. Even if the movie eludes you, it can be inferred from the numerous fan theories circulating online and the noticeable absence of a character in many scenes of the “Thunderbolts*” trailers.

“Thunderbolts*” kicks off with Valentina needing to wipe out evidence of her various crimes, so she sends Yelena, John Walker (Wyatt Russell), Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), and Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko) into an O.X.E. Group vault to secretly kill them off. A deleted scene from “Black Widow” actually shows Taskmaster getting carted off by U.S. authorities, which likely explains how she fell under the purview of Valentina as the CIA director. Before the four realize they’ve been played, Ghost shoots Taskmaster point-blank in the head, killing her instantly. 

It’s a quick, shocking demise for a character who’s done so much more in the comics than the MCU has allowed. But a surprising death is precisely what director Jake Schreier wanted. “We felt like a movie like this needed something like that,” he told GamesRadar+. “Where you’re like, ‘Okay, if they’ll do that, they could do anything,’ you know, and you don’t really know exactly where the thing is going to go. It needed a bit of shock or surprise.” Despite that, no one else of note dies in “Thunderbolts*.” Even everyone who’s turned into a shadow by the Void comes back once Bob’s regained control of his emotions. 

Despite being one of the weaker members of the Thunderbolts, it might have been cool to see Taskmaster fight against Sentry, mimic his moves, and still get overpowered. But as it stands, she only appears in a few minutes of the film. She’s not even technically a Thunderbolt, since she bows out of the party before they come up with the moniker. Maybe Taskmaster is the one who needed an asterisk by her name.