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So, Thunderbolts* just dropped an emotional grenade wrapped in sarcasm, trauma, and unexpected team bonding, and we’re still trying to recover. This isn’t your average MCU finale with clean hero wins and predictable punches. Nope, this one hits harder, messes deeper, and somehow ends with Bucky Barnes leading therapy sessions between people who’ve tried to kill each other.
While the movie mostly keeps things grounded (well, MCU-grounded), it drops just enough universe-shaking twists, hi, Sentry!, to leave us with more questions than answers. Who didn’t make it out alive? What does that post-credits bombshell mean? And are Yelena and Bucky the new unlikely co-parents of chaos? Let’s dissect every last twist of that beautifully messy ending, one super-charged secret at a time.
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The ending of Thunderbolts* goes from “team in chaos” to “trauma bonding saves the day” real quick. Things spiral after Valentina sends Bob (now the golden-suited Sentry) to obliterate his team. Bob’s not entirely in control. The Void, aka his literal depression monster, hijacks his powers and starts wiping people out like expired TikToks. Civilians vanish—helicopters crash. Yelena walks into the chaos like it’s just another Tuesday and faces a horror reel of her Red Room past.
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The Thunderbolts* unite in Bob’s nightmare loop to help him break free. Yelena hugs him mid-breakdown (therapy, MCU edition), and Ghost, Walker, Red Guardian, and Bucky join the group hug. That love-powered moment weakens The Void, restores reality, and brings Bob back to his sweet-but-scared self. Cue the dishwashing redemption arc!
So, who bites the dust? Just one: Taskmaster. Poor Antonia Dreykov didn’t even make it to the final act. She gets a brutal headshot courtesy of Ghost during the team’s early betrayal-fest inside the O.X.E. vault. It turns out that Val tricked all the shadow operatives into turning on each other—bad move.
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In the aftermath, Val tries to steal the win with a press conference, but Yelena gets the last word (and smirk). Thunderbolts* ends not with a bang, but with a mic drop, and one super-satisfying team glow-up.
Let’s talk about that sneaky little asterisk in Thunderbolts*, the punctuation that had the internet spiraling harder than Bob mid-Void episode. It turns out the star isn’t just Marvel being edgy or mysterious. It’s a whole plot twist baked into the title.
The Thunderbolts are… not the Thunderbolts. Not officially. Valentina spends the movie trying to sell her scrappy squad of trauma-riddled antiheroes as the world’s new defense line. But by the time the credits roll, she’s already rebranded them as something flashier: “The New Avengers.”
The asterisk reflects this bait-and-switch. It’s Marvel’s way of saying, “These guys look like the Thunderbolts… but plot twist: they’re now the face of the new Avengers initiative.” So, technically, Thunderbolts* was a misdirect all along.
It’s clever. It’s cheeky. And it gives Yelena the perfect moment to creep up behind Val and whisper, “We own you now,” right before the title on-screen shifts from Thunderbolts* to The New Avengers. That star? It’s not a typo. It’s a wink. And now, every time we see it, we’ll remember the film where Marvel’s misfit toys leveled up, and kind of stole the brand.
Just when you think things are wrapping up, Marvel drops a final breadcrumb in the credits that has fans screaming into their popcorn: The Fantastic Four are on their way. As the newly minted “New Avengers” hang around Avengers Tower debating Bob’s dishwashing skills and Red Guardian’s fashion choices, a warning comes through: something weird is happening in space.
Then comes the money shot: an interdimensional ship heading to Earth, and it’s clearly a Fantastic Four craft. So yeah, Reed Richards and crew are about to crash the MCU party. And it’s Yelena, Bucky, Bob, and the rest of the ex-Thunderbolts are poised to welcome them.
It’s a wild tease, and it raises big questions. Will the New Avengers join forces with Sam Wilson’s Avengers squad? Will they clash over branding? (Red Guardian is already pitching “Avengerz” with a Z.) Is Bob stable enough to face cosmic threats without blacking out and Void-blasting an entire city block?
We know Avengers: Doomsday is next for many of them, including Florence Pugh, Sebastian Stan, David Harbour, and Lewis Pullman, so they’re far from done. If anything, they’re just getting started. With Val likely lurking in the shadows, space chaos inbound, and Bob still refusing to fly, Phase 6 looks unhinged. Let’s just hope someone packed snacks for the space mission.
For more such stories, check out Hollywood
Must Read: Thunderbolts Breaks Records: Highest-Rated MCU Phase 5 Film On Rotten Tomatoes
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