Thunderbolts isn’t the Suicide Squad clone you thought it would be. Marvel’s Phase Five misfit team-up takes a darker, more introspective route, exploring depression, trauma, and identity in ways few MCU entries have dared.
But while it delivers strong emotional beats, the ending throws in a curveball, undercutting its own message and launching the franchise into uncertain territory.
Let’s break it down. Spoiler Alert!
The film’s core conflict revolves around Bob Reynolds, aka The Sentry, played by Lewis Pullman. The super-serum-enhanced anti-hero begins to unravel mentally, and when a kill switch is used against him, it doesn’t kill him, it unleashes his alter ego, The Void. The darker version of Sentry believes the way to help others is to erase them from existence, trapping them in psychic prisons. It’s disturbing, layered, and a bold take on mental illness within a superhero framework.
The Thunderbolts team, including Yelena (Florence Pugh), Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), U.S. Agent (Wyatt Russell), Ghost, and Red Guardian (David Harbour), must enter this psychic battlefield to confront The Void and pull each other out. The showdown ends not with a climactic explosion, but with emotional connection and trust, a group hug, essentially, that brings them back.
But just when it seems like we’re getting a rare grounded Marvel ending, Thunderbolts swerves into political satire. The team confronts Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), planning to expose her crimes. Instead, they’re ambushed at a press event where she publicly rebrands them as “The New Avengers.” Cue fake applause, media spectacle, and the Thunderbolts staring blankly, realizing they’ve just been used again.
It’s a gut-punch ending, especially for characters like Bucky, who has a line earlier in the film about being manipulated in the past. Valentina’s escape from accountability feels intentional, a commentary on power structures and media spin, but it leaves the audience as dazed as the characters. Yelena’s whispered threat to Valentina, “We own you now”, lands weakly, given Val’s track record of getting away with everything.
So where does this leave the MCU?
The first post-credits scene offers levity. Red Guardian is in a grocery store, begging someone to recognize him on a Wheaties box with the team photo. It’s absurd, a nod to his thirst for fame and a reminder that Marvel still loves its jokes, even when stakes are cosmic.
The second post-credits scene, though, drops a bigger bomb. The Thunderbolts argue over the name change, with Sam Wilson (Captain America) reportedly suing over their use of “Avengers.” Just as things get heated, a spaceship bearing the Fantastic Four logo appears, confirming the arrival of Marvel’s First Family in the main MCU timeline.
This moment sets up Fantastic Four: First Steps, but also implies that their universe has been destroyed, an unusually bleak reveal to drop months ahead of the film’s release.
The ending, and especially the asterisk in Thunderbolts, suggests the team’s name was never meant to stick. This was always a transition, from anti-heroes to a corporate-owned, manipulated squad of “heroes” who barely believe in their new branding. It’s a jab at PR rebranding, and perhaps Marvel itself.
Still, the tonal whiplash between Thunderbolts’ powerful emotional core and its final act leaves a disconnect. Characters wrestle with trauma and identity only to be forced into a phony Avengers cosplay by a corrupt handler. It’s bold, but also muddled.
Meanwhile, MCU continuity is once again under scrutiny. Thunderbolts takes place in New York, at the same time as Daredevil: Born Again, yet no characters acknowledge Kingpin’s actions or the mass blackout he caused. Thousands of civilians are potentially trapped in psychic limbo thanks to The Void, and if that’s not referenced in Daredevil Season 2, fans will notice. Marvel’s “it’s all connected” promise is wearing thin.
So what do we walk away with?
- The Thunderbolts aren’t villains, but they’re not quite heroes either.
- Valentina is still unchecked, and possibly untouchable.
- The Sentry is alive, but his darker half is suppressed, not destroyed.
- The Avengers name is being hijacked, and Sam Wilson is not happy.
- The Fantastic Four are en route, but likely carrying the ashes of their world.
Marvel’s Thunderbolts delivers more emotional depth than expected, but its ending raises more questions than it answers. The MCU has always walked the line between serious storytelling and spectacle, but here, that balancing act feels more fragile than ever.
