Black Widow's take on Taskmaster was comic-accurate in the sense that "he" successfully mimicked the MCU's superheroes and was a force to be reckoned with. However, the movie would eventually reveal that he was a she, and Tony Masters was swapped out for Antonia Dreykov.
With a much-improved costume in Thunderbolts*, the hope had been that Taskmaster might find some redemption in the team-up project. Instead, Olga Kurylenko had a single line of dialogue and a brief fight scene before being gunned down by Ghost.
We've since learned that original plans called for her to become a New Avenger, with an entire subplot devoted to her bonding with Ghost and repeatedly attempting to kill John Walker due to her memory issues. Director Jake Schreier, however, felt the movie needed some added stakes and decided the best way to achieve that was to have one of the leads die early on.
Many fans were fine with it, while others have demanded "#JusticeForTaskmaster." In a newly surfaced interview (translated by @Miranes2310), Kurylenko reveals that the script changed significantly when production was paused in 2023 before detailing her shock that her part had been reduced to a cameo.
"Actually, we were unlucky because we started shooting this film when the strike happened. So, basically, we brought all our stuff with us. I took my son out of school, we moved to Atlanta for five months, rented a house and everything. And all of a sudden, two weeks later, they say, 'You're going home because there's a strike and we don't know when it's going to end.'"
"But suddenly, in the first script, my character was... She was there until the end, but it wasn't the same script at all. After the strike, the script had nothing to do with it. They changed the concept, they changed the story, the places, where it took place. It wasn't the same anymore. It's a pity. It was a cool character."
"It's especially that everyone, even the costume designers, said, 'Oh my, she's our favorite character in terms of costumes, because she's the one with the best look.' My costume is the best."
You have to feel for Kurylenko, but Thunderbolts* didn't really suffer without Taskmaster and arguably had time for the rest of its characters by not focusing on the largely quite unpopular Black Widow villain.
It's not likely that she'll be resurrected in a future project, and it's worth noting that the actor rented a house before the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Had those not happened, the script likely would have remained the same. Like Daredevil: Born Again, it seems that pause led to Marvel Studios deciding that changes should be made.
Do you think Thunderbolts* made a mistake by bidding such a swift farewell to Taskmaster?