Marvel’s Thunderbolts Delivers a Bold, Evangelion-Inspired Ending That Defies Superhero Norms (Photo Credit – Instagram)
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With its May 1 debut, Thunderbolts proves Marvel isn’t afraid to color outside the lines. Instead of the usual “heroes saved the universe” ending, Marvel cued a weird, trippy finale that left fans blinking in confusion.
Directed by Jake Schreier, the movie throws together Marvel’s most emotionally unavailable characters—Yelena, Bucky, Ghost, the whole troubled bunch to stop some massive threat. Sounds like a usual Marvel Setup. But this is where Thunderbolts changed the whole superhero script into a raw, emotional, and deeply human. And planned not to go out in a blaze of CGI and explosions.
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Marvel Swaps Its Hero Ending For a Mind-Bending Spiral
The climax takes a left turn that no one saw coming. As things spiral, the screen floods with haunting visuals, flickering memories, reality glitches, and timelines bleeding together.
Audience is tossed into a spiral of trauma, regrets, and questions with no easy answers. Sounds like something anime? That’s because it is Neon Genesis Evangelion, yes, that anime’s infamous ending. And critics caught the similarities immediately.
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Rafael Motamayor from Slashfilm nailed it, writing, “Thunderbolts just remade one of the most controversial anime endings ever.” He went on to say, “Marvel’s ending feels less like a superhero victory and more like a collective therapy session—one that leaves the viewer equally cathartic and unsettled.”
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End scenes from the Japanese anime series “Neon Genesis Evangelion” by Japanese filmmaker Hideaki Anno pic.twitter.com/hyTZ0TFHMR
Marvel’s Thunderbolts Abandoned Traditional Ending After Awkward Test Reactions
What’s crazier is this wasn’t even the original plan. According to The Direct, Marvel initially crafted a much cleaner ending. The Thunderbolts were supposed to step up as the “New Avengers.”
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But the applause was awkward, reactions lukewarm. So, Marvel ditched the traditional ending and leaned into the weird. Director Jake Schreier spilled the beans: “To be honest, that came from testing… When we actually tested it, it was more of an uncertain, halting applause and people didn’t know how to feel about it at first. That’s where the title sequence comes from.”
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He then added, “It felt like we needed to show the audience that we understood this isn’t necessarily obvious or even going to work but hopefully you come to embrace it, and that sequence could take you through that process.” The final scene is pure chaos—scattered headlines and broken timelines, and characters stuck in limbo.
