Marvel Studios has pulled off a major surprise, and fans everywhere are buzzing. What started as Thunderbolts has now been officially rebranded as The New Avengers. This twist has completely changed the way people are viewing the movie — and the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) at large.
Recently, Marvel Studios updated the movie’s title, and fans noticed something unusual: posters of Thunderbolts were being replaced by ones that said The New Avengers*. And get this — actor Sebastian Stan (who plays Bucky Barnes/The Winter Soldier) was even spotted changing out posters himself in a fun little marketing stunt.
At the same time, Jake Schreier, the film’s director, sat down for a chat with Variety, where he explained what this whole switch-up was about.
Schreier said the idea was inspired by Julia Louis-Dreyfus’s character, Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (aka “Val”), who in the movie is seen rebranding a group of antiheroes as the New Avengers. So the filmmakers thought, “Hey, if she’s pulling a trick in the movie, why not do the same in real life?”
That little asterisk in the original Thunderbolts* title? It was a big clue — and it had been part of the logo for over a year. Turns out, it was all part of a carefully planned twist.
Schreier added that they didn’t feel stressed or unsure about the surprise. In fact, Marvel Studios was totally on board with the plan. Even Kevin Feige, Marvel’s head honcho, had hinted at times that they sometimes want certain secrets to leak, while others are tightly guarded.
What This Means for the MCU
This isn’t just a name change — it signals a major shift in the MCU. The Thunderbolts (a team of morally grey, often antihero characters) are now being introduced to the world as a new version of the Avengers. It’s a clever in-universe and real-world branding move — and it shakes up what fans thought they knew about Marvel’s future direction.
In the movie, it’s Valentina Allegra de Fontaine who brings the team together and publicly brands them as “The New Avengers”, making the change part of the actual storyline.