Why Does Marvel’s ‘Thunderbolts*’ Have An Asterisk In The Title?

During the Marvel presentation at CinemaCon, the studio revealed that the highly-anticipated team-up film, Thunderbolts, now has an asterisk next to its name. Given the film has already seen two actors exit the project, Steven Yeun and Ayo Edebiri, naturally fans are concerned about what the heck all of this means. Fortunately, Kevin Feige was on hand to calm everyone down while still serving up that famous Marvel secrecy.

“Yes, you’ll notice the asterisk on Thunderbolts*,” Feige told the CinemaCon crowd via Comic Book. “That is the official title of Thunderbolts* and we won’t talk more about that until after the movie comes out.”

The good news is that Thunderbolts* is filming in Atlanta as we speak. Florence Pugh recently shared an Instagram photo from the set where she revealed her new Yelena Belova/White Widow outfit and showed director Jake Schreier hard at work.

You can watch it below:

As for the plot of the Thunderbolts*, not much is known. On the surface, it appears that Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ Valentina Allegra de Fontaine will finally put together the team she’s building in the background of the latest Marvel films and Disney+ series. That team will reportedly be led by Yelena Belova (Pugh) and include Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan), Red Guardian (David Harbour), U.S. Agent (Wyatt Russell), Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), and Taskmaster (Olgya Kurylenko). The team will seemingly take its name from President Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross who’s now played by Harrison Ford. However, the asterisk could change all of that.

We also know that The Sentry will be heavily involved in the film. Steven Yeun was originally cast in the role, but due to scheduling conflicts following the SAG-AFTRA strike, he had to bow out of making his Marvel debut. Lewis Pullman has reportedly stepped in as the wildly powerful Marvel comics character. Think Superman, but not entirely stable.

Thunderbolts* slams into theaters on May 2, 2025.