Boom. There it is. The MCU's Thunderbolts is ditching the one character who literally invented the team in the comics—and director Jake Schreier isn't sorry.
In a recent interview with Dexerto, Schreier revealed that Daniel Brühl's cunning, dance-loving Baron Zemo was never in the script. Not even as a draft-day maybe. “There was no version that I was presented with where that was ever true,” he admitted, shrugging off fan outrage like a vibranium shield deflecting bullets.
The Comic Book Betrayal
For those who haven't geeked over 1997's Thunderbolts #1: Zemo created the team as a Trojan horse. After faking the Avengers' deaths, he rebranded his Masters of Evil as shiny new heroes, conning the world while wearing his dad's old enemy's alias (Citizen V—irony thicker than Cap's biceps).
But the MCU? It's flipping the script. Julia Louis-Dreyfus' Valentina Allegra de Fontaine is now the puppet master, pulling strings for a squad that includes Bucky, Ghost, and Taskmaster. Schreier claims they're still honoring the comics' “villains masquerading as heroes” vibe—just with less purple mask, more bureaucratic scheming.
Why This Might Actually Work
Let's be real: Zemo's MCU track record is messy. He caused Civil War, yes, but his Falcon and Winter Soldier arc painted him as a weirdly principled anarchist—hardly a team player. Meanwhile, Val's been lurking in post-credits scenes like a spy thriller villain, making her the perfect shady den mother for this Suicide Squad-lite lineup.
But here's the rub: Cutting Zemo isn't just a roster change—it's a tone shift. The comics' Thunderbolts were a psychological minefield of redemption and betrayal. The movie? Leaks suggest more Mission: Impossible meets Dirty Dozen.
The Fan Revolt (And Why It's Familiar)
This isn't the first time Marvel's swapped comic canon for cinematic convenience. Remember when Age of Ultron sidelined Hank Pym for Tony Stark? Or when Civil War turned the Secret Invasion storyline into a Bucky manhunt? The MCU's always played fast and loose with source material—sometimes brilliantly (Guardians of the Galaxy), sometimes… Quantumania.
Schreier knows the risks: “Some corners of the internet are not so happy.” Understatement of the year. But if Thunderbolts nails its “different angle” on villainy, Zemo's absence might sting less.
Or it'll be the MCU's next “Rhodey's a Skrull?!” mess.
