THUNDERBOLTS*: Taskmaster's Original Role In The Movie Has Been Revealed And It Will Blow Your Mind

THUNDERBOLTS*: Taskmaster's Original Role In The Movie Has Been Revealed And It Will Blow Your Mind

Thunderbolts* writer Eric Pearson has revealed Taskmaster's original role in the MCU movie, detailing an entire story arc for the character that also involved characters like Ghost and U.S. Agent...

By JoshWilding - May 05, 2025 10:05 AM EST
Filed Under: Thunderbolts
Source: Polygon

We first met Taskmaster in Black Widow, with a third-act reveal that he was really a she: Antonia Dreykov, the daughter of the Red Room's twisted leader. She found redemption during the final act and, somewhere between then and Thunderbolts*, became a mercenary for Valentina Allegra de Fontaine. 

Olga Kurylenko only shows her face once in the movie and gets a single line of dialogue before she's gunned down by Ghost. She and U.S. Agent pick her bones for the weaponry they like the look of, and the assassin is left to burn. 

Talking to Polygon, Thunderbolts* writer Eric Pearson confirmed that Taskmaster had a much different role in the script he wrote. It wasn't until he sat down to watch the first cut of the movie that he realised her entire story arc was gone (remember, Joanna Calo also took a pass on the movie). 

In his draft, Antonia gets "a pretty big subplot" and was set to bond with the Ant-Man and The Wasp villain who shoots her in the head in the theatrical cut. Pearson felt they had a lot in common, "as people who’d grown up in labs and been controlled that way."

"And Ava, having won her autonomy earlier in the chronology than Taskmaster, was kind of big-sistering her a little bit, in a way of 'how to break free and be your own person,'" he added.

"I mean, everyone in there has suffered a ton of tragedy," Pearson said of what she originally brought to the movie. "But she was kind of the ultimate tragedy. In the old tragedy rankings, she was at the top, and the other, bigger personalities — no one could get out of line, because no one could say 'I had it worse than you.'"

"On the comedy side, she was struggling with her own memory-loss stuff, and there was a gag where she just kept restarting the fight [with John Walker] and forgetting that they had made up and become friends."

"They would be discussing the plan of how to get out [of the vault], and she’d just go after him again, and they’d all have to pig-pile on each other, and pull her off, and be like, 'No, we know each other! We’ve had this conversation before!'" he continued, suggesting it might have been cut due to the similarity to Bob's own amnesia. 

As for why all this was cut, Pearson doesn't know, but it doesn't sound like any of this was shot. We can guess, of course, and it may have something to do with fans being so vocal about not wanting to see Taskmaster return to the MCU after Black Widow

There's only so much room in an ensemble, and Antonia's arc may well have been considered the most superfluous by filmmaker Jake Schreier.

Thunderbolts* is now playing in theaters.

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HOTSHOT
HOTSHOT - 5/5/2025, 10:46 AM
Okay? But that's not Taskmaster. At all.

Like yeah sure. You could've done more with her....but why not call her something else?
epc1122
epc1122 - 5/5/2025, 10:51 AM
@HOTSHOT - taskmaster is a big high profile name lol 😂
TheFinestSmack
TheFinestSmack - 5/5/2025, 10:52 AM
My mind is SO blown, I may never recover.
Vigor
Vigor - 5/5/2025, 10:52 AM
Now let's kill GAIA off in the same way
TheVisionary25
TheVisionary25 - 5/5/2025, 10:56 AM
@Vigor - or just depower her..

I thought the character was fine but they really should have made her powers temporary.
Vigor
Vigor - 5/5/2025, 11:00 AM
@TheVisionary25 - killing her is the same as depowering her, from a certain point of view 😉
TheVisionary25
TheVisionary25 - 5/5/2025, 11:01 AM
@Vigor - lol

One you could see develop the character while the other option doesn’t include that possibility
DannyBrandy20
DannyBrandy20 - 5/5/2025, 11:11 AM
@Vigor - Who is that?
Vigor
Vigor - 5/5/2025, 11:12 AM
@GodHercules20 - skrull from secret invasion who the writers lazily gave the powers of every avenger
Vigor
Vigor - 5/5/2025, 11:14 AM
@GodHercules20 - actually even worse. The powers of everyone who fought outside avengers HQ at the end of endgame.
SonOfAGif
SonOfAGif - 5/5/2025, 11:34 AM
@Vigor - I think that's what Sentry will do in Doomsday. I have this suspicion that Doom will recruit Gaia as she's easier to manipulate due to her hatred of humans.
dagenspear
dagenspear - 5/5/2025, 1:18 PM
@Vigor - And write a story cheaply again. Why celebrate that they basically wrote a story in a cheap way and want that to continue.
DannyBrandy20
DannyBrandy20 - 5/5/2025, 4:43 PM
@Vigor - giah

We all should forget about it

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BeyondtheFuture
BeyondtheFuture - 5/5/2025, 10:52 AM
How can you be an expert assassin if you forget what you’re doing every 5 minutes?
slickrickdesigns
slickrickdesigns - 5/5/2025, 10:59 AM
@BeyondtheFuture - ever see Momento? Dude got it done. 🤣 might’ve been the wrong guy.
SonOfAGif
SonOfAGif - 5/5/2025, 11:34 AM
@BeyondtheFuture - Because she isn't Taskmaster. The tech is Taskmaster.
MGSSnake1988
MGSSnake1988 - 5/5/2025, 10:54 AM
Truly the first time the MCU wasted an entire character arc for a cheap shot. Unlike the five Avengers like Stark and Rogers who already had their redemption arcs, Natasha Romanoff's redemption arc in her own film is destroyed by this film.

Sure, this Taskmaster is the Deadpool from X-Men Origins: Wolverine, but there's actually something interesting with the character. Too bad Bond and Marvel screwed Olga Kurylenko so many times, at this point.
JustAWaffle
JustAWaffle - 5/5/2025, 12:21 PM
@MGSSnake1988 - first time?
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Nomis929
Nomis929 - 5/5/2025, 12:41 PM
@JustAWaffle - Thank You
dagenspear
dagenspear - 5/5/2025, 1:16 PM
@MGSSnake1988 - Now, they've made their writing even more cheap and poor and weirdly sexist against women. They didn't have to listen to fans who disliked it. Instead they take the character, who they'd pointlessly genderswapped yes I think, but they made her not even a character and gave her no agency in the story, but gave her a horrific backstory of being blown up by a heroic character, not allowing her to express any anger against that character, was brainwashed and experimented on to be an assassin her near entire life and then she's just killed in her next appearance so quickly, for some reason by the character she has the most in common with. Even they were gonna kill her off, they didn't have to do that, they didn't have to tear her down in such a ridiculously negative way, and run counter to the entire point of the story with her in BW.
SauronthePower
SauronthePower - 5/9/2025, 12:20 PM
@dagenspear - absolutely agree

To me, Drakov’s ‘exit’ was THE single dumbest and most disrespectful plot choice in an otherwise fairly decent scipt. Should have kept this treatment and replaced about 35% of Val’s, Mel’s, and Aexi’s comic relief running time schtick padding with THIS

Would have been SO much more endearing and also aligned FAR more closely with this movie’s overall macro emotional sensibilities
bobevanz
bobevanz - 5/5/2025, 10:54 AM
That would have been a funny gag, but it would have felt stale af more than three times. The rule of three for comedy must not be broken!
MisterBones
MisterBones - 5/5/2025, 10:54 AM
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