What does the asterisk mean in ‘Thunderbolts*’?

Thunderbolts* is the latest Marvel Cinematic Universe arrival in multiplexes worldwide – but why is there an asterisk at the end of the title?

Directed by Jake Schreier (Beef), the superhero film sees a group of misfit antiheroes caught in a deadly trap and forced to work together on a dangerous mission.

The ensemble cast includes Florence Pugh as Yelena Belova, Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes, Wyatt Russell as John Walker, Olga Kurylenko as Taskmaster, David Harbour as Red Guardian, Hannah John-Kamen as Ghost, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Valentina Allegre de Fontaine.

Thunderbolts* was released in cinemas worldwide on Thursday (May 1).

In a four-star review of the film, NME wrote: “By the end, even the clunky-looking asterisk in the film’s title makes sense. Thunderbolts* doesn’t so much reinvent the wheel as remember what put the wheels on this bandwagon in the first place: an epic blend of thrills, spills and psychological ills. It’s the most fun the MCU’s been in years.”

What does the asterisk mean in Thunderbolts*?

Amid the light-hearted interactions between the Thunderbolts team and the twisty, clandestine plot machinations that threaten the characters’ world as they know it, one mystery remains for many onlookers at the 36th MCU feature.

The asterisk at the end of the film’s title has had fans speculating since it first appeared in marketing in 2024. While the specific resonance of the punctuation mark is never directly addressed in the film, it is widely accepted that it denotes that the Thunderbolts are a substitute team that have been assembled in the absence of the Avengers.

One international poster features the footnote “*The Avengers are not available”, apparently revealing that the asterisk is a self-referential nod to the fact that the Thunderbolts are a misfit crew and an emergency combination of antiheroes, rather than an established squad of powerful superheroes.

Some have theorised that the asterisk could also refer to the fact that the Thunderbolts is just a temporary name for the group. As shown at the end of the film, they toy with the idea of adopting the name the ‘New Avengers’ or ‘Dark Avengers’, so Thunderbolts* could denote that this is just a holding name until they settle on a permanent moniker.

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