Speculation Mounts That THUNDERBOLTS* Could End Up Being A DARK AVENGERS Movie

@ObserverIO - Every single member of the team has been part of an iteration of a Thunderbolts team in the comics (putting aside stuff like it isn't a comic accurate Tasmaster and the like). The question is more are they are a mostly villains in disguise type of version, a sort of hero team of the suicide squad ilk, full hero team or something else.

STILL think that Zemo will turn up, likely with a Masters of Evil team of some form but we'll see, just too many Super Soldiers in it to not draw him out considering he has been fully setup as being against those.

At minimum the * suggests that maybe it isn't the real official name of the team or it at least has an AKA name, however could suggest that by the end some have switched to being part of a full on villain team (likely Bucky and Yelena surviving but not joining) and the end credit will be the name of Zemo's team (if I am in the correct ballpark) NOT Thunderbolts as would be the norm, that replaces what had been the Thunderbolt one (so in effect the film has two names instead of one).

@ObserverIO - Cept it is even less like the comic Dark Avengers, any version of, than multiple versions of Thunderbolts are as all that is needed for this to turn into what folk expect the original Thunderbolts concept to be is for Zemo to turn up with a few other characters and it become Masters of Evil cos ultimately that was what the original Thunderbolts was, Masters of Evil in disguise, not a real new team at all but a pseudonym of another pre-existing team, a villainous one, that returned to that original team name.

We can nitpick about original intent and which comic iterations are true to that or not, point is all the characters have been antagonists at various points in MCU history that we know are in it, all adaptions of characters who had been at various points in time in the comics villains, and all have at one point or another been members of an iteration of Thunderbolts.

Thus starting out with, at government direction, a suicide squadesque take on Thunderbolts being formed, in the absence of an Avengers team, and at the end having Master of Evil revealed would be much the same as the original run in many ways even if the starting point differs slightly.

@ObserverIO - bingo! You get it

@ObserverIO - Also need to keep in mind if they DID do an exact copy of the original story a bunch of the members of Zemo's team would all want to be real hero's by the end and some would go straight back to villains so...

...anyway, it will be what it will be.

@ObserverIO - You would need to have fully established the Masters of Evil first before the film doing a direct adaption of the Thunderbolts story, they would then have to go on multiple missions to slowly gain the trust and respect, then you would need the presumed dead Avengers to return and the reason why Zemo did all of that (to gain access to SHIELD records) would need to be changed...

Having a handfull of hero origins who then come together as a team, fairly easy to do.

Fully creating a list of multiple well established villains across dozens of stories, then forming a team of villains, then pretending to actualy be a team of heroes and gaining the trust doing full hero stuff on several missions, then revealing they are the villan team, but some grew to like being heroes and/or thought they were supposed to be reforming to be heroes not just pretending for villanious reasons etc etc...

Not as easy, impossible in 2hrs and probably wouldn't attract the GA as would need WAY too much homework or to be a super nerd like us and they wouldn't have a clue who almost anyone was (least all the ones they picked have been in the prior films and/or shows) and less likely to be led to believe they were watching a hero team that turned out not to be a hero team. It is a push for the GA as it is using the known characters they have to be interested, all unknowns bar Zemo no chance.

...can't do all that in a 2hr film, would need to all basicaly be unknown characters OR do a loose adaption where they have been previously used antagonists are in the shades of grey area and could go full villain OR full hero. However your kinda overlooking the point that Thunderbolts was only EVER a name only thing as they were not Thunderbolts with that first team they were Master of Evil with a fake name.

What works in comics after decades laying the path, takes place over dozens of comics then has decades of the aftermath cannot always be directly translated.

@ObserverIO - Which is sorta what they are doing by using characters who were villains at one point or another cos Hammer, Mordo and Xu Xialing were less villains than any of these we are getting have been, Bullseye hasn't even been in the MCU properly yet, Wanda to be dead, Namor isn't going to be working for any humans yet and Ultron too OP to be under Zemo...

...however the whole fakeout of making them look like Avengers then reveal doesn't work for adaption anywhere near as well as it did in the comics cos spoilers ruin it so all or nothing for OW and STILL need to make HUGE shortcuts and changes so wouldn't come close to being the same story anyway.

At least with the way they are going, picking all the ones in the shades of grey area, it is less predictable who could go full villain by the end, who could go hero as no time to do what they did in the comics to sell full villains ending up staying as a hero team...

...but then after that there was multiple other times in differing ways when the team was again full villains including the first time Yelena was supposed to be on it but then revealed to be Nat disguised as Yelena to infiltrate them they can pull from if wanting it be villains in disguise storyline. As I say twelve versions of a small team plus the Thunderbolts army iteration they can pull aspects from. Till we know precisely how it will all play out wrong for any of us to assume they are going with a full hero one or a suicided squad type iteration as we don't even know with certainty if the person in charge is a good guy or villain yet.

@jonathanstrange - But Bucky IS in the movie. He’s been in it from the beginning..?