Florence Pugh has revealed Marvel shot a fake Thunderbolts* ending scene that included a title that wasn’t The New Avengers.
The movie ends with villain Valentina Allegra de Fontaine tricking the Thunderbolts into taking part in the announcement of The New Avengers in front of the world’s media.
This dramatic MCU plot beat was subsequently mirrored in real-life, when Marvel officially changed the name of the movie to The New Avengers. Marvel even dragged the on-screen dispute between Sam Wilson’s Avengers and this new superhero team into the real world.
The ending scene, the truth behind the Thunderbolts* asterisk, and The New Avengers title were all kept a closely guarded secret, and keeping that secret involved shooting a fake scene with an entirely different name for the team.
Yelena actress Florence Pugh revealed the anti-spoiler ploy in a video published on Entertainment Weekly: “We shot a version where she was like, ‘The New Thunderbolts!’ And everyone was like, ‘Woo!’ And then we took all of the background [actors] out and shot Julia’s line, which was kind of cool.”
It turns out Julia Louis-Dreyfus, who plays Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, knew about the twist years ago, when she was first approached to join the MCU, but kept it a secret all this time.
Marvel Studios has form when it comes to keeping secrets. It planted fake leaks to protect secret Deadpool & Wolverine cameos, and Spider-Man: No Way Home star Andrew Garfield outright lied to fans about his appearance in the film.
As for Thunderbolts* / The New Avengers, its second post-credits scene teases this July’s The Fantastic Four: First Steps, which may or may not feature Giganto.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].
