‘Thunderbolts*’ star teases the secret explanation to the MCU’s most mystifying mystery, and apparently it’s ‘very cool’

What is the biggest, most confounding mystery concerning the immediate future of the MCU? Who will lead the next Avengers team? How is Robert Downey Jr. back as Doctor Doom? What blackmail did Kevin Feige have on Harrison Ford to get him to play Red Hulk? Non, nein, nyet. It’s actually: what is the actual deal with that random asterisk in the Thunderbolts* title?

For much of its lifespan, the upcoming movie about the MCU’s anti-heroes forming a team was simply called Thunderbolts, but back in March, a new logo was revealed which unveiled the curious piece of punctuation now stuck on the end. Since then, despite Marvel panels at Comic-Con and D23, the studio hasn’t been forthcoming on the meaning behind the attention-grabbing asterisk.

Thanks to star David Harbour, however, we can now at least say that there is an explanation for it, and that it’s “very cool.” Red Guardian himself admitted to ComicBook.com that the added asterisk was a late-in-the-day innovation, but he can understand why that would make sense for the story and he’s “excited” for audiences to find out what it’s all about.

“I mean, they retroactively put the asterisk [in]. The asterisk was an idea that that someone had… What can I say that’s not going to get me in trouble?… The asterisk is very cool. I understand why people might put an asterisk there. I’m excited for the viewers to see that as well. But I, again, I just can’t say anymore.”

The actual meaning behind the Thunderbolts* asterisk*

*Warning: this might not be the actual meaning behind the Thunderbolts* asterisk.

The other thing about Thunderbolts that Marvel seems keen to keep under wraps at this time is the exact identity of Lewis Pullman’s enigmatic role in proceedings. So far, his character is only officially being referred to as Bob — for anyone who’s picked up a comic, though, this is a particularly flimsy attempt at subterfuge. Bob Reynolds is the real name of Sentry, the Superman-level superhero who has long been rumored to feature in the film.

Now, it’s possible that the Sentry and the peculiar punctuation of it all are unconnected, but maybe we need to cut through this thorny problem with Occam’s razor and speculate that these two mysteries are actually one mystery. Maybe when Marvel is finally ready to out Sentry’s involvement, perhaps in a final trailer, it’ll finally reveal the movie’s full title — Thunderbolts*, with the subtitle *And Sentry. A similar cheeky trick has already been pulled with Agatha All Along (which went by three other fake titles before we found out the real one).

Thunderbolts* is the second of the three MCU movies we’re getting in 2025, with its May 2 release date squeezed in between February’s Captain America: Brave New World and July’s The Fantastic Four: First Steps. That means we’ve likely got at least half a year to sit tight before the marketing really ramps up and further clarification on that pesky asterisk comes to light. If it ends up meaning “*Downey’s in this one, too, y’all,” I will take back all my kvetching.