Spoilers! 'Thunderbolts*' ending, post-credits scene sets up 'Avengers 5'

USA Today

03-05-2025

Spoilers! 'Thunderbolts*' ending, post-credits scene sets up 'Avengers 5'
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Sebastian Stan, Wyatt Russell talk 'Thunderbolts*'
Sebastian Stan and Wyatt Russell tell USA TODAY what it was like returning to the Marvel family in 'Thunderbolts*.'
Spoiler alert! We're discussing important plot points and the ending of Marvel's 'Thunderbolts*' (in theaters now), so beware if you haven't seen it yet.
This not a drill: We've got a new team of Avengers. And they're probably not the folks you expect.
In 'Thunderbolts*,' a B-team of Marvel Cinematic Universe supporting players levels up to the A-list, though they have to navigate past traumas – and tussle with one of their own – in an emotional final act.
The movie features Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), the former Winter Soldier, and Russian assassin Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh) forming a team – named after the lowly pee-wee soccer squad Yelena was on as a kid – with fellow antiheroic misfits Red Guardian (David Harbour), John Walker (Wyatt Russell) and Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen).
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They meet Bob, a guy whose amnesia comes with impressive superpowers, though this friend becomes an enemy when he's turned into the hubristic Sentry by CIA director – and main Thunderbolts arch enemy – Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus). But Sentry breaks free from her control and then, fueled by Bob's repressed emotions, transforms into a shadowy figure called The Void, putting New York City and our heroes in dire straits.
Let's deep dive into all the best spoilers, from that surprise ending to a future-shock post-credits scene leading right to "Doomsday."
What happens in the ending of 'Thunderbolts*'?
The Void spreads an eerie darkness across the Big Apple, seemingly erasing New Yorkers from existence and leaving a body-sized black mark in their place. In a desperate gambit, the Thunderbolts enter The Void itself, and each hero is forced to live out a past trauma or regret – even Bob. To win the day, the teammates rally around Bob and give him a group hug, putting everything back to normal.
They find Valentina trying to scurry away on the street and go to confront her, but it's a trick: They walk right into an impromptu press conference, where she proclaims, 'Ladies and gentlemen, meet the new Avengers!' The team is taken aback, though Yelena whispers in a worried Valentina's ear, 'We own you now.'
Director Jake Schreier reveals that on the day of filming, they sent extras home early before Louis-Dreyfus did her takes uttering the A-word to keep it a secret. 'It's just a name, right? But still, you feel something,' the filmmaker says.
Why does 'Thunderbolts*' have an asterisk?
Comic-Con 2024 was the first time the title was touted with a mystery punctuation mark. Marvel president Kevin Feige said at the time that he wouldn't talk about the asterisk's meaning until the movie's release. And this is why: Before the credits roll, the 'Thunderbolts*' title appears and has changed to 'The New Avengers.'
'I don't think there's another studio or another kind of movie that has the eyeballs on it where you could do that, which is kind of a crazy move after you've spent all that money marketing a movie called one thing and then reintroduce it as something else,' Schreier says. (It's an homage to the twist at the end of the first 'Thunderbolts' comic book in 1997: A new superhero group calling themselves Thunderbolts saves New York, but it's really the villainous Masters of Evil in disguise.)
So will 'The New Avengers' now be on the Blu-ray, post-release merch and everything else going forward? 'You might see some billboards shift a little bit on Monday morning,' Schreier teases.
Does 'Thunderbolts*' have any post-credits scenes?
There are actually two. The mid-credits scene features Red Guardian – in his civilian clothes, not the usual Soviet super-soldier garb – in a grocery store cereal aisle. Now national heroes, the Thunderbolts have made the cover of a Wheaties cereal box and he tries to impress a stranger by showing it to her. 'That's me on the box!' he exclaims proudly as she walks off, weirded out.
The more important one comes at the very end of the credits. Set 14 months later, the scene catches up with the new Avengers – clad in spiffy gear with the trademark 'A' on it – in their headquarters. Bucky is helping Yelena lead the team, which is apparently now locked in a copyright battle with Sam Wilson, who seems to want to start his own non-governmental Avengers squad. (Wearing a track suit with 'New Avengerz' on it, Red Guardian calls Captain America a 'dumb litigious man.')
Bob is off to the side, not able to use his powers in order to keep The Void at bay – 'I did the dishes, though,' he says. With a space crisis at hand, Yelena gets a warning of an extra-dimensional craft approaching and they view a screen that shows a sleek spaceship entering orbit. 'Cool ship,' Walker cracks as it rotates to reveal the Fantastic Four logo on the side.
It's the biggest set-up yet for the upcoming event movie 'Avengers: Doomsday' (out May 1, 2026), which promises the Fantastic Four, a number of Avengers and even a bunch of X-Men. And it also gives Pullman somewhere to go next in exploring his character's conflicting sides.
'The deeper you dive on one part of Bob, the more questions arise from the other two,' he says. 'Every chapter has its own arc, so it's really exciting to see what the arc will be in 'Doomsday.' '