Who would have guessed that punctuation would be one of the defining points of conversation around the Avengers' first real replacement team in the MCU? But as soon as Kevin Feige revealed the addition of the asterisk to Thunderbolts*' title, the studio unlocked a subtly genius marketing tool: fan speculation.
Thunderbolts never really made much sense as a title, given the fact that Harrison Ford's Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross - who the team is named after in the comics, of course - doesn't appear, and seems to have nothing to do with the team. Instead, they're brought together thanks to (or in spite of) Julia Louis-Dreyfus' Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine. The Contessas doesn't really have the same ring to it.
Adding an asterisk fundamentally added mystery to the upcoming MCU team, suggesting that either the title would change - not unlike Agatha All Along's multiple titles - or that a story development would change the expectation of them being a team. The first Thunderbolts* trailer added further weight to that second line of thinking, but it's the newest trailer that seems to offer the most evidence of what's going on.
The New Thunderbolts* Trailer Hints At The Team Getting A Different Name
At the end of the Thunderbolts* trailer that was released at Disney's D23 Brazil event, Sebastian Stan's Bucky notably says "we can't call ourselves that" after Red Guardian tries the name out and the next shot sees the asterisk pointedly added to the title card. It feels like an in-universe admission of what some have long suspected: that absolutely isn't their official name.
With an MCU Thunderbolts* movie officially in development, here's everything that's known so far including potential cast, story, & release date.
It looks like the asterisk was always just a joke - mostly at Red Guardian's expense. He believes "The Thunderbolts" is a "cool name" as he says in the trailer, but the rest of the team seem particularly averse to the suggestion. In effect, the antiheroes get the opportunity to do something the Avengers never could, rejecting the name someone else thrusts upon them. Whether that will actually lead to a retitle of the movie is unclear, but I wouldn't bet on it. It feels more likely that the team will simply get a new official name by the end of the movie.
What The Thunderbolts* Team Could Be Called
The other most persistent rumor around the team name in Thunderbolts* centers on The Dark Avengers, a far cooler monicker that fits the antiheroes' modus operandi of black ops missions and off-book wet work. The problem with that, of course, is that the Dark Avengers are an existing Marvel Comics team who were villain impostors disguised as legitimate heroes. That's clearly not the case here.
It wouldn't be out of the realms of possibility for the name to be repurposed if Marvel Studios had no plans to make a pure adaptation of the Dark Avengers, but that would be a shame. But the antiheroes using the Secret Avengers team-name that was officially given to Captain America's splinter team of Avengers who debuted in Avengers: Infinity War, would be more appropriate. They, too, worked from the shadows in the wake of Captain America: Civil War's events, and it feels more fitting for Bucky to be part of a team without an ominous name.
Bucky has wrestled with his own Winter Soldier legacy for years, and is clearly invested in helping other superpowered individuals with "red in their ledgers" in Thunderbolts* and for him to accept the "Dark Avengers" name doesn't quite scan. And as one of the longest serving heroes in the MCU, Bucky deserves to be able to still call himself an Avenger, frankly.
Marvel's Thunderbolts* is a superhero movie based on the comic team of the same name. The movie acts as a part of the MCU's fifth phase of films. The film sees the likes of Bucky Barnes, Yelena Belova, Wyatt Russell, the Red Guardian, and more as an unlikely group of heroes and villains brought together to fight for good.
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