Spoiler alert! (But not really, because Marvel did it first.)
It turns out that the asterisk in Thunderbolts* was a placeholder for the secret real title of the movie: The New Avengers.
After waiting a grand total of three days since the film debuted, Marvel decided to get ahead of spoilers by, well, spoiling the big twist themselves.
Those who saw Thunderbolts* over the weekend learned about the “real title” when Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ character dubs the group of antiheroes led by Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh) as “the new Avengers.”
Those who haven’t seen the film yet, however, learned of the secret title after Marvel unveiled the stunt on their social media platforms, posting a video that showed the cast ripping off the old title on the poster to reveal the “The New Avenger" emblazoned underneath it.
Shortly after they dropped the big news, the studio changed their account name from Marvel Studios to “Marvel Studios*” as a sort of “wink and nod” about the whole thing.
Then, they posted a video of Sebastian Stan, the actor playing Bucky Barnes in the film, replacing a Thunderbolts* poster with The New Avengers poster.
Movie theaters and billboards across the country have also replaced the posters to reflect the new title.
Although spoiling their own film is undoubtedly a novel move for the notoriously tight-lipped studio, the reaction to the marketing stunt has been decidedly “meh.”
Some Marvel fans love the spoiler, claiming the move brought novelty to an increasingly stale genre of film (everyone’s feeling superhero fatigue as of late).
However, others are decidedly against the stunt, and are split into two camps: Either they don’t appreciate getting the ending spoiled before even having the chance to watch the film, or they just don’t care as they had no plans to watch Thunderbolts*, excuse me, The New Avengers anyway.
“Fire everyone in your marketing department. Do not hesitate. Show no mercy,” one outraged fan wrote on X.
People were quick to agree with this sentiment, with commenter even saying: “Um this just makes me want the MCU to Burn even faster.”
Was the move a stroke of genius or a major mistake on Marvel’s part? Box office receipts soon will tell.
