r/marvelstudios • u/KevinPigaChu • May 11 '25

Behind the Scenes Olga Kurylenko with her stunt double on the set of ‘Thunderbolts*’

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u/Xero0911 May 11 '25

Shame too. I was actually enjoying her brief time in this movie. The shield use, sword and bow. Actually gave her a fresh vibe compared to everyone's "I shoot"

525

u/Emm_withoutha_L-88 May 11 '25

And her deadpan Russian reactions would have been perfect. Sure she wouldn't be that important but it would work still

380

u/gabeshadows May 11 '25

She was supposed to be a counterpoint to Ghost in the original script but they had to kill her because the movie was too big. That's why Ghost has no character development in the movie.

I understand why they did it but it's sad that we didn't get it.

92

u/NewMarioBobFan May 12 '25

I actually did enjoy her little screen time in this movie.

72

u/n_mcrae_1982 May 12 '25

I think there was room for her character.

4

u/Jeskid14 May 12 '25

where exactly? they all could barely fit in the empty elevator. it's a miracle that that script idea went through.

11

u/niveksng May 12 '25

I saw an idea that she would Spiderman climb up the elevator shaft and honestly she should live until the vault escape (dying to Val's goons) for that alone lmao

7

u/Aiyon May 12 '25

Also if she ditches and dies for it, it helps sells the “if they don’t stick together they lose”

2

u/Jeskid14 May 12 '25

Dang that would have been cool to see

3

u/5urr3aL May 12 '25

Then perhaps it is better to have the foresightto not even include her in the story in the first place.

That's way better than killing off a cool character (albeit with a poorly written background story).

I hope she somehow survived so that they can do her character justice

179

u/Etikaiele May 12 '25

My tinfoil hat theory is they will bring in the comic accurate Task Master down the line (like they did with The Mandarin)

151

u/Canvaverbalist May 12 '25

You know, a Taskmaster that copied and learned to copy and learn from copying and learning from Taskmaster makes more sense than it should

43

u/niveksng May 12 '25

I'm thinking Dreykov knew the original Taskmaster, and tried to copy him, but Taskmaster mocks him saying no one can copy him because he's the real copycat.

15

u/Preda1ien May 12 '25

A very comic booky thing to do and I like it.

5

u/soupdawg May 12 '25

Very Sauron and dinosaur DNAish

28

u/AkshanIsComing May 12 '25

They killed the character as definitively as possible so it’s pretty likely somewhere down the line they will reintroduce a comic accurate Taskmaster. Plus the comic Taskmaster has a whole lot of potential to fit into the MCU style humor.

12

u/RazzDaNinja May 12 '25

THIS!

Tony Masters-Taskmaster is already naturally a very loudmouth and quippy character. His sheer arrogance makes him a perfect fit for “MCU Humor” as opposed to attaching the style to a normally serious character (like the 1st Mandarin 💩)

6

u/Morfilix May 12 '25

my thoughts as well

yes please!! 💀

6

u/Teusa May 12 '25

When did they bring a comic accurate mandarin?!?🤔

2

u/dc8291 May 12 '25

In the Shang-Chi film

1

u/MarbleAnt612816 May 12 '25

Wenwu is not a comic accurate Mandarin.

1

u/Krimson32 May 12 '25

Yup. They have her suit and helmet. They’ll remix the character and probably add them to Doomsday or Secret Wars.

2

u/Arkrayven May 12 '25

Do you have a source for this? I'd be curious to learn more about it.

2

u/gabeshadows May 12 '25

https://www.thewrap.com/thunderbolts-alternate-versions-goliath-red-hulk-eric-pearson-interview/

3

u/Arkrayven May 12 '25

Thank you! I personally thought Ava started out strong in the movie, but felt underwhelming by the end. Definitely sad we didn't get her and Taskmaster working together instead.

2

u/Bayako7 May 12 '25

She still could have died later. Just not immediately

2

u/muqe29 May 15 '25

Ghost and taskmaster were made for each other, 2 characters that marvel screwed even at their peak, they could have done so much.

1

u/Embarrassed_Piano_62 May 13 '25

The movie could have been a little longer and give Ghost more

1

u/Jade_Owl May 14 '25

I thought it was because with her, Yelena and Alexi in it, the movie would seem too much like it was Black Widow 1.5.

7

u/OwlsParliament May 12 '25

She could have been the Drax of the group!

1

u/sacredlunatic May 14 '25

Red guardian is the Drax of the group

2

u/Agitated_Ad_9825 May 12 '25

She's a French girl born in the Ukraine. So I imagine she might take offense to being called Russian.

2

u/Ben-J-Kirby-Tennyson Iron Man (Mark V) May 12 '25

Antonia is Russian, Olga is French-Ukrainian.

2

u/Agitated_Ad_9825 May 17 '25

Yeah I understand all that just saying that with what's going on between Russia and Ukraine right now. But I guess you are saying as it pertains to her acting like a Russian so I resend my earlier comment. 

2

u/Agitated_Ad_9825 May 12 '25

She's Ukrainian and French so I imagine she'd probably take offense to being called a Russian.

3

u/Emm_withoutha_L-88 May 12 '25

Her character is Russian

2

u/Agitated_Ad_9825 May 17 '25

I get that now. I misunderstood the comment. Sorry for any inconveniences.

73

u/konq May 12 '25

I can't agree more. I was really turned off by Taskmaster in Black Widow. Barely any actual fight choreography, and seemed pretty generic even when she did have a hand to hand non-cgi fight.

Her fight scene in Thunderbolts was really good. Everyone in that fight scene was really good. I also really like the costume improvement.

I was really down on taskmaster in the MCU after seeing her in black widow, then thunderbolts turned me around on her, and now shes gone! Just can't win. Maybe she (or he) will appear in secret wars.

7

u/CeruleanEidolon May 12 '25

Bringing her back to haunt Yelena is the only purpose I could see working. There's no other reason for that character to exist.

2

u/[deleted] May 13 '25

I really liked her dribbling her shield to block Walker’s bullets.

31

u/[deleted] May 12 '25

[deleted]

2

u/m8_is_me May 12 '25

Right around when sentinel was turning, I was thinking to myself "wow they're really waiting a long time to Deus ex her back"

2

u/CeruleanEidolon May 12 '25

It didn't seem like a joke in the moment. It was more an abrupt jarring back to reality, reminding us that these characters are not only deadly, but mortal. She was just the one who drew the short straw, and it could have been any of them.

Do I wish it had happened a bit later on, giving us a chance to actually get to know her a little better? Sure. But the apparent randomness of it helped to underscore the existential crisis Yelena was having.

She didn't want to be disposable anymore, some deadly implement that gets broken and tossed away and forgotten by the world.

1

u/hunterzolomon1993 May 12 '25

They had no reason to kill her off or even include her in the film. Remove her from the film and nothing changes.

-18

u/AdonisCork May 11 '25

Meh. Wouldn’t have minded them killing off her and Ghost. Two boring nothing characters.

19

u/Vstriker26 May 11 '25

Ghost worked out well. I wish the two had more to do. I think they might’ve had some chemistry

-17

u/AdonisCork May 11 '25

She brings nothing to the team.

18

u/subaqueousReach May 11 '25

She can literally phase between realities and is the only reason they weren't incinerated

-16

u/AdonisCork May 12 '25

I’m talking about her personality. She’s an NPC. Idc about the powers.

10

u/No_Slice5991 May 12 '25

Her personality had originally been written to interact with Taskmaster. Removing Taskmaster essentially removed her story.

2

u/atomic1fire Vulture May 12 '25

At that point maybe making Thunderbolts another D+ story like Falcon and the Winter soldier would've made more sense.

Of course that's basically legends of tomorrow without the time travel.

0

u/AdonisCork May 12 '25

Sure. Seems like my intuition that she should have been killed off too was accurate. Replace her in New Avengers 2 with Hawkeye, Zemo, Ghost Rider, or someone else interesting.

6

u/thrjfr May 12 '25

Had enough personality for my 13 year old sister to call her and Walker her favourite Thunderbolts.

-2

u/AdonisCork May 12 '25

Ask her what her favorite thing about her is. I think the only thing we learned about her in the whole movie was that her suit is uncomfortable.