One of the MCU’s most polarizing villains ready to be reappraised ahead of ‘Thunderbolts’

We’re convinced at this point that every contract involving a Marvel Cinematic Universe film comes with the stipulation that the studio has full creative control of the third act, complete with a CGI army fight and a one-in-two chance of completely butchering an otherwise passable-at-worst movie up to that point. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is the most egregious culprit, and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever was lucky enough to have a solid enough script that it didn’t suffer too heavily.

There’s been no bigger victim to date than Black Widow, the third act of which resulted in one of the more divisive movies in the MCU’s library, which was perhaps appropriate for the Phase Four opener given the contentious sentiment around that era as a whole. The most serious offense? Dropping the ball on a villain who should have one of the highest ceilings in the entirety of Marvel’s rogues gallery.

Indeed, fans won’t soon forgive Black Widow for its mishandling of Taskmaster, who’s due for a return in Thunderbolts next year (assuming the delays don’t push it too far back, that is), and the eyes of all the r/marvelstudios residents are on Marvel’s next big team-up movie to inject some long-overdue justice into Olga Kurylenko’s villain.

Of course, the goal on Thunderbolts‘ hands doesn’t involve fixing Taskmaster so much as creating her in the first place; given the fact that she was quite literally void of any personality in Black Widow, doing anything at all with the character would be a net upgrade.

That’s not to say that Taskmaster’s action scenes should be ignored, either; given that she boasts one of the most interesting martial movesets in Marvel’s library, getting creative with her combat is prime real estate for positive reception.

All in all, we’re pulling for Thunderbolts to bring an unprecedented edge to Marvel’s big screen efforts, but an extra special eye will be on Taskmaster; Marvel, there won’t be any second chances from the fans after this one, so make it count.

Thunderbolts is currently set to release to theaters on July 26, 2024.