The following post contains SPOILERS for Thunderbolts* — ones which the notoriously spoiler-phobic Marvel are themselves spoiling on their own social media channels. So blame them, not me!
For the second time, Thunderbolts* has a new title.
Marvel is now hyping the film with the name that appears in the movie’s closing credits sequence — after, in storyline, the team (sort of) referred to as the Thunderbolts takes up the mantle as the MCU’s new team of Avengers. After that the “Thunderbolts*” name gives way in the credits to “*The New Avengers” — which is exactly what a bunch of new posters and images and videos all call the film.
So if you were waiting to see the film until next weekend and stay spoiler-free, well, uh, bummer.
Here, for example, is the new poster for *The New Avengers shared on Instagram:
There’s also a video of the Thunderbolts* (or *New Avengers) cast revealing the new title.
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Marvel also shared a fun video of Sebastian Stan wandering around, personally replacing posters featuring his character, Bucky Barnes. This guy is such a superhero he even does his own marketing!
This whole hullabaloo with multiple names is the predictable end point of adding that asterisk to Thunderbolts* back in the spring of 2024. First it was just Thunderbolts, then at CinemaCon that year, Marvel’s Kevin Feige announced they were dubbing the film “Thunderbolts*” but wouldn’t explain why until the movie was in theaters. Most predictions at the time (including my own) speculated that Marvel was going to reveal that these characters were the MCU’s new Avengers. In this case that was extremely literally true; they are actually *The New Avengers.
Since that was the title of a very successful comic for Marvel in the 2000s and 2010s, I always assumed Marvel would get around to using it for a film at some point. Just as they will probably get around to using some of the other Avengers team book titles, like Dark Avengers, Mighty Avengers, Avengers Forever, Secret Avengers, and Avengers Assemble. (If things go on long enough, maybe we’ll even get West Coast Avengers and Great Lakes Avengers.)
kThunderbolts* *The New Avengers is now playing in theaters everywhere.
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