Every Main Character from Marvel's Thunderbolts*, ranked least to most likely to die
On May 2, Marvel Studios will release Thunderbolts*. Marvel is hoping for a win this time around, after the commercial and critical failure failure of Captain America: Brave New World.
But there is a large difference. When the trailers came out for Brave New World, it was heavily criticized for spoiling the big third-act conclusion and overall not being creative at all, just another generic superhero movie. Thunderbolts looks like the opposite. In this adventure, Marvel has assembled a bunch of their most popular (not very superpowered) side characters from throughout their movies - Bucky from the original Captain America movies, Yelena from Black Widow and Hawkeye, Red Guardian and Taskmaster from Black Widow, John Walker from The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and Ghost from Ant-Man and the Wasp - and assembled them to fight the incredibly powerful and godlike Sentry. It genuinely seems like a fun and interesting idea and every trailer we have seen so far has been met with essentially unified acclaim.
The trailers we have seen so far have been, simply put, amazing. It showcased the chemistry between the team - which is amazing and hilarious - and showed us some truly haunting footage of Sentry turning into his evil form the Void and melting terrified people into pure shadow.
And the most appealing part of it all is the fact that we have no idea at all what will happen in the movie. We know that Valentina de Fontaine will assemble a team of misfits to fight Sentry/Void - and that's it. Instead of focusing on the action spectacle and bragging about their ending like Brave New World, these trailers instead focus on the characters themselves and where a lot of them are in their life. We have no clue how the Thunderbolts will defeat Sentry - if they do at all - and we don't want to know until the movie comes out. And that is what these trailers understand.
In addition, Thunderbolts boasts some truly interesting credits. In their latest trailer, titled Absolute Cinema, the studio shows them off - at different points in the trailer, the screen goes black and a new credit from the other side of the camera is showcased. The movie has the stars of Midsommar, A Different Man, and You Hurt My Feelings, the writers and directors of Beef, the editor of Minari, the cinematographer of The Green Knight, the production designer of Hereditary, and the composers of Everything Everywhere All at Once. Every single one of those movies is a critically acclaimed indie film from the widely popular indie studio A24. Essentially, the movie is an Avengers indie movie with somewhat unpowered side characters - and this is precisely what Marvel needs in an era in which superhero fatigue is a real thing and people are tired of seeing weightless fights and explosions on screen. An IndieWire article says it best - "Stan spills something on his shirt, a person in a chicken suit gets punched in the face, and David Harbour screams “Yessssssss!” It’s all vibes and no plot, but those vibes tell a story of their own: This isn’t going to be another cookie-cutter spectacle about people in spandex fighting to stop a beam of light from the sky. This is going to be a real movie. A dangerous one, even."(Ehrlich).
The movie is basically Marvel's Suicide Squad - a group of misfits brought together by a powerful entity to fight against an incredibly powerful force. Couple this with the fact that the Thunderbolts are fighting against one of the most powerful entities in Marvel and Kevin Feige's viral interview in which he stated that "some but not all" of the Thunderbolts will appear in the next Avengers movie, and it's almost a foregone conclusion that more than one character will probably die in Thunderbolts*. In this article, I will be ranking every confirmed main character in Thunderbolts* by how likely I think their death is.
8 - Yelena Belova
From what we see in Yelena in the trailer, she is struggling. We see her swiftly assassinating a full story of a skyscraper and then jumping off of Merdeka 118, the second tallest building in the world (which Florence Pugh actually did for the movie!). She has just recently escaped her brainwashing in the Red Room, in which she was forced by mind control to kill hundreds of people she didn't want to. We see her overcome by grief, overwhelmed by her past and seeking redemption as best she can.
But one thing I'm sure of is that Marvel is not done with Yelena. She is essentially Marvel's new Black Widow, and she will continue to function as such into the foreseeable future. She will almost certainly appear in the upcoming Avengers movies and I am excited to see her do so, as she has so far been the standout of every Marvel project she has appeared in. Yelena's here to stay.
7 - Sentry/Void
As Sentry is the main villain of the movie, this death makes perfect sense on paper. But the more I look into his character and the characters fighting against him, the less I believe it will happen. In the comics, Sentry is an omnipotent being - basically Marvel's Superman - who fights with the Avengers and the Guardians of the Galaxy heroically. Yet, he has a dark side, named the Void, who is evil and kills people for twisted satisfaction. A look at the trailer confirms that this will be a central point of the movie - in one scene, Lewis Pullman's Sentry stands looking frail in a hospital gown looking scared of a gun pointed to his face and holding his hands above his head, and in another he says "Hi, I'm Bob". But in another scene, we see a dark shadow crossing over New York and the same character, looking significantly angrier, killing people instantly by turning them into shadows.
My personal theory is that in the end, the Thunderbolts will be able to turn Void back into Sentry and save the day - and Sentry will fight for the good guys in the upcoming Avengers movies. This death could happen, but I don't find it plausible.
Then again, the Suicide Squad killed Starro the Conqueror - but I don't know if the Thunderbolts have access to an entire city's worth of rats.
6 - Valentina Allegra de Fontaine
Teased throughout Phase 4 of the MCU with appearances in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and Black Widow, Valentina Allegra De Fontaine - played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus - was thrust into the spotlight in the trailers for the movie when it was revealed that she had bought Avengers Tower and formed the Thunderbolts. In line with what we have seen so far, Valentina is quick-witted and confident, to a point of near brashness.
As the creator of the Thunderbolts, killing her off doesn't make much sense. She is not in on the action as far as we know, instead watching from afar. However, don't count this one out - it is a possibility that one of the Thunderbolts could rebel against their creator, or Void kills her for attempting to control him. It is a possibility, though I don't believe a large one.
5 - Bucky Barnes
Now, we are in the territory of genuinely possible deaths. This one really pains me, because Bucky is one of the most loved characters in the entire MCU. He was introduced as the best friend of Steve Rogers fifteen years ago in 2011's Captain America: The First Avenger. After seemingly dying, it was revealed that he was actually captured by rival organization Hydra and brainwashed into becoming a ruthless killer, going after Steve Rogers himself in The Winter Soldier, which is widely considered one of the best movies in the entire MCU. After Steve Rogers kick-started his memory as the Helicarrier they were on fell from 200 feet in the air at the end of Winter Soldier, he sided with Captain America in the superhuman civil war. He then became an instrumental part of the fight against Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War. After dying and being resurrected by the Hulk's snap in Endgame, he teamed up with Falcon in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Finally, he had a cameo appearance where he met up with Sam Wilson in Captain America: Brave New World. He is one of the few surviving characters from Phase 1 of the MCU and precedes the second oldest character on the team by over seven years.
When we see him in the trailer for Thunderbolts, he is at a strange place in his life. After the adventure of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, he seems to have settled down, as we see him pulling his high-tech metal arm out of the dishwasher and attaching it. But, later on in the trailer, we see the return of the badassness of the Winter Soldier. Sporting a motorcycle and an RPG, he takes down a car with Yelena, the Red Guardian, and John Walker in it and brings them to the back of a truck, where he tells them that they will join him to fight (presumably against Void). Based off of this, we can infer that he is the one to physically assemble the Thunderbolts for Valentina.
The biggest thing pointing towards his death is the sheer amount of time he has been in the MCU. All great things must come to an end someday, and most of the characters introduced in that time period (Iron Man, the original Captain America, Black Widow) have been killed or sent off. However, the fans will want a truly important send-off to the character, and being one of the deaths in a movie of two or more deaths without a huge amount of fanfare will anger some fans. If he does die, it will have to be the emotional centerpoint of the entire movie. If you ask me, I say he lives and goes on to be a part of the next couple Avengers movies before dying or retiring.
4 - John Walker
Introduced as an antagonist in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, John Walker was originally portrayed as the American government's psychotic replacement for Captain America. However, the Thunderbolts* trailer wastes no time in showing us a new side of the character; we see him tuck a baby into bed before sitting down and reading a New York Times article about his downfall sadly. A welcome redemption arc seems to be in the works.
This death does make sense; he is a nonessential side character that was not well liked in his original project, because he was a bad guy. His death could provide necessary shock value and emotion to the movie. However, I think this character has an incredible amount of potential for the future, and the movie could grow out his world by showing us his family and giving him a true redemption arc in the movie, before finishing his arc as it was in the comics by making him the Captain America sidekick U.S. Agent. I am much less confident in this one, but I say he narrowly survives.
3 - Ghost
Introduced in 2018's Ant-Man and the Wasp, Ghost was an insanely cool character - the result of a terrible accident that left her able to phase through solid objects. Disappointingly, her power was not utilized in the movie nearly as much as it should've been. This looks different in Thunderbolts - in the trailer we can see her dodging a knife by allowing it and the assailant to pass right through her, before becoming solid again and grabbing the knife from her stunned attacker.
While Ghost is an incredibly cool character, it just makes sense that she dies. Her character really doesn't show many signs of deeper exploration, and she doesn't really have a family or any personal things we know of. The movie will probably build her up, making a character out of her, before killing her to add depth and emotion to the movie and raise the stakes. Unfortunately, I believe she will die near the end.
2 - Red Guardian
Out of every single placement on the list, this is the one that hurts the most. Red Guardian is the most infectiously fun person in this movie, and in my opinion, all of Marvel. He is Yelena's father figure and the Soviet Union's first Super Soldier. The trailers are peppered with cuts of him joking, laughing, and overall having a great time while the rest of the team are freaking out. In the opening scene of the first trailer, we see him sitting on his couch surrounded by food, before hearing a knock on the door and running around trying to get himself together. We then see him driving a car with Yelena and John in it, and remarking happily after seeing the Winter Soldier ("I love that guy!"). Later in the trailer, we see what appears to be him and his "daughter" Yelena having a deep conversation.
Unfortunately, in this movie, his death makes all too much sense. He's the comic relief - already a bad sign - and he is desperately attempting to repair his relationship with Yelena. If he survives, he will of course continue to be a welcome presence - but I don't think he makes it out of this one. He will probably be "that" death to cap off the third act with a bang and further Yelena's character development.
1 - Taskmaster
Taskmaster is essentially dead already. We see her in approximately two shots in the trailer - when they meet up and their opening fight against each other - and in every single team-up scene in the rest of the entire movie, Taskmaster is nowhere to be seen.
Her introduction in Black Widow was met with a universal "meh". She had none of the gravitas of her comic counterpart and was just a bland villain not many people enjoyed watching.
She is by far the least liked and least important member of the team, and this points to her death in every way. If this movie is anything like the Suicide Squad movies as they have been billed, there is one major superhero death (or, in 2021's The Suicide Squad, over a dozen) in the beginning of the movie. I believe that this will be Taskmaster.
