Proof That Marvel Edited Thunderbolts' Trailers to Hide Taskmaster's Fate (Photos)

Marvel Studios put forth its best efforts to hide a pivotal Taskmaster moment in the trailers and promotional run for the MCU's latest movie, Thunderbolts*. Olga Kurlyenko's Taskmaster was billed as one of the core members of the team assembled in Marvel's last Phase 5 movie, but its trailers told a different story than what came to fruition.

Marvel Studios edited the footage from Marvel Studios' Thunderbolts* in the trailer to hide Taskmaster's death. While the trailers did not include much of Taskmaster to begin with, Marvel Studios still teased a bigger role for the Black Widow villain than what was ultimately delivered in her return.

The first shot puts Taskmaster next to the rest of the Thunderbolts team members as they stand in front of Julia Louis-Dreyfus' Val in the Watchtower, which was formerly Avengers Tower. She can be seen clearly in her full costume between Hannah John-Kamen's Ghost and Wyatt Russell's John Walker/U.S. Agent.

Taskmaster was then omitted from this shot in the final cut of the movie, as she was killed long before the team assembled. In fact, she died before she even met Sebastian Stan's Bucky Barnes.

The other Taskmaster shot from the trailer seems to put her in the same bunker as the rest of the team, with a red hue illuminating her before the bunker is about to be incinerated.

Just like before, this moment in the movie came a short time after Antoinia Dreykov met her end, as she did not make it to the time the incinerator was turned on.

In the final cut of Thunderbolts*, Olga Kurlyenko's Taskmaster only had a couple of minutes of screentime after the character was sent to the bunker as part of Valentina Allegra de Fontaine's ambush. Following a short fight involving Yelena Belova, John Walker, and Ghost, Ghost winds up shooting her in the head and killing her.

Thunderbolts* is the latest theatrical release for Marvel Studios, bringing together characters from multiple recent MCU outings to form a unique team of antiheroes and former villains. Uniting against Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, the team is later faced with the seemingly insurmountable task of stopping one of the MCU's most powerful villains ever, Sentry. Thunderbolts* is now playing in theaters worldwide.

Marvel's History of Hiding Spoilers in MCU Trailers

While Marvel Studios has a long history of hiding spoilers from its trailers, the attempt to do this for Taskmaster did not seem to land as well with fans as past attempts to keep secrets. Due to her only being in the film for one scene and having one line of dialogue, her death only became a disappointment, leading many to feel Marvel could have done so much more with the character in the MCU.

However, that is not to say Marvel has not succeeded in hiding major spoilers in past trailers, even with moments most fans knew were coming.

Take Spider-Man: No Way Home as an example, with its second trailer heavily editing out both Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield's legacy heroes. Even with the expectation that both of them would show up alongside their past antagonists from old Sony movies, their arrival still had a massive impact on fans after not being used at all in trailers.

Looking ahead, Marvel is continuing this trend for its next movie, The Fantastic Four: First Steps, by holding off on confirming Sue Storm's pregnancy when the first trailer was released. While it is still unknown how much of the movie she will be pregnant in, Franklin Richards' MCU debut is now one of the most eagerly-awaited moments in the franchise's immediate future.

Moving to projects even further out for release, it is almost guaranteed that movies like Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars will have plenty of moments in their trailers that are vastly different from the final product. With those movies expected to be the biggest films in MCU history, fans can be sure that Marvel will pull out every stop in order to keep their biggest moments from being revealed too early.