Thunderbolts* Director on Why Marvel Decided to Kill Taskmaster in Act 1

Thunderbolts* director Jake Schreier is opening up about why Marvel decided to kill off Taskmaster in the first act of the MCU movie.

Thunderbolts* was released in United States theaters this past May. The cast of the ensemble Marvel Studios movie includes Florence Pugh as Yelena Belova, Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier, Wyatt Russell as John Walker/U.S. Agent, Olga Kurylenko as Antonia Dreykov/Taskmaster, Lewis Pullmasn as Bob Reynolds/Sentry, David Harbour as Alexei Shostakov/Red Guardian, Hannah John-Kamen as Ava Starr/Ghost, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Valentina Allegra de Fontaine.

The first act of Thunderbolts* sees the Taskmaster character suddenly killed by Ava while the two of them, along with John and Yelena, are fighting in an underground bunker. While Ava, John, and Yelena eventually become allies, Taskmaster remains dead for the rest of the movie.

What did Jake Schreier say about Taskmaster’s death in Thunderbolts*?

Speaking with ComingSoon in an exclusive interview, Schreier was asked what the process of killing a character like Taskmaster is going to die in Thunderbolts* and if that decision comes from Kevin Feige or the creative team.

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“Yeah, it definitely takes a lot of discussion. It’s not done lightly. That came out of a whole set of discussions that happened after the shutdown and the strikes. We kind of returned [to the] script and talked a lot internally — everyone at Marvel — about what we felt we could improve about it. It felt maybe a little jam-packed, and it also felt a little bloodless. You have this movie about killers and these people who have theoretically done terrible things. And, right now, you don’t really get to see that in the movie; you don’t get to feel the effects of it. Like, sure, there are grunts, but grunts don’t really register on an emotional level.

“It felt like there was an opportunity to do something that you wouldn’t expect, that was surprising, and also that kind of makes it a little more clear. It’s like, yeah, that could have been any of them, you know? This was the job that Ava was sent to do. It could have been Yelena, it could have been Taskmaster — this is who it happened to be. And then [we] watch how sort of empty that feels and watch the way that then resonates a little bit later when Ava and Yelena have that conversation.

“But, yeah, it’s a sacrifice and a tough one to do because Olga [Kurylenko] is a wonderful actress, and like you said, it’s a toy being put away for a while. That it was for the value of the overall narrative and making the movie feel like it was earning what we were saying with these characters — that it’s not an R-rated movie. It just felt like we needed to do something to kind of push it to a place that you might not expect to understand how these characters were different, and this different story that we were trying to tell.”

Thunderbolts* is available to rent or own on digital platforms, and will be available on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, and DVD release on July 29, 2025.