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This article contains spoilers for Thunderbolts*.

As Popverse's Thunderbolts* ending explained already told you, there's only one major death in what some fans used to call Marvel's Suicide Squad. That death is Taskmaster's, the character played by Olga Kurylenko in 2021's Black Widow, who is killed by a swift gunshot to the head before Act One of the film is even over. Despite the character's B-list nature in the MCU, the moment was still pretty shocking, particularly to writer Eric Pearson. Why? Because Pearson wrote the Thunderbolts* screenplay, and he didn't have Taskmaster dying.

Pearson expressed his surprise in a recent interview with Polygon, published May 5. "[Taskmaster's death] was decided after my work," said the writer, whose other credits include Thor: Ragnarok and Godzilla vs. Kong, "When I sat down to watch the first cut, one thing was totally different and shocked the hell out of me, and it was that. Everything else, I was like, 'Yeah, that’s the movie that I wrote!' But that decision…"

Pearson went on to say that Taskmaster, whose real name was Antonia Dreykov, actually survived the entire film in his draft of the script, and was part of "a pretty big subplot." Specifically, that subplot had Antonia forming a connection with Ava Starr, AKA Ghost, played by Hannah John-Kamen.

"Ava," Pearson explained, "Having won her autonomy earlier in the chronology than Taskmaster, was kind of big-sistering her a little bit, in a way of ‘How to break free and be your own person.'"

Considering all of what we now know about the original plans for Taskmaster, that death had to come as a giant, even personal shock to Pearson. Not just because Pearson was the script writer behind Taskmaster's introduction to the MCU in Black Widow, but because it was Antonia's "big sister" Ghost that ended up killing her. 

It's also a fascinating window into the relationship Marvel Studio writers have with the final products. Next question on our list - did Pearson know about the New Avengers thing too, or was that just as big a shock? (We're only joking; he did, but it wasn't actually his idea.) 

Thunderbolts* is in theaters now. 

Consider this a meta post-credits scene for Marvel fans - the four key articles you need to read next to continue the thrills:

• How to watch the Marvel Cinematic Universe in release or chronological order
• The best Marvel Comics stories of all time
• All the MCU movies ranked from best to worst
• Our weekly Marvel insider's column, Marvel Matters