If Marvel went along with the original Thunderbolts team, who would you want to be the main villain and what type of atmosphere, mood, and story would you want there to be?

I would imagine The Leader turning on the team or trying to manipulate them, making them have to fight him in the end. Although this does risk coming a bit too close to Suicide Squad, with one rogue member.

To counter that risk, I would want them to all be working against a common enemy (like in the finished product) for their own reasons. I think a great main villain for this movie would be Arnim Zola, since he has been severely underused. I would imagine him trying to make some sort of dangerous supersoldiers to rebuild Hydra, and Zemo obviously not being a big fan of that and assembling a team to stop him. I would imagine one of the main dynamics being Zemo and The Leader, both of who would try to be in charge of the team. But what do you guys think?

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AS-462026-01-05 07:33

I’d like them to mix Thunderbolts plot with Cap4 plot.
Sentry story is good, but if Thunderbolts were gathered not with mercenaries, but imprisoned villains (like Blonski, Tooms, Zemo) by PotUS himself - that would be much more interesting than Valentine.
Moreover, potus is still manipulated by Leader whose idea it was. So technically he has his pocket superhuman team to do all the dirty job he wants. And the Rulk fight is the final bossfight.

While Cap 4 could have some more interesting and relatable plot.

SecretWarsIsComing2026-01-05 11:10

I like the idea of redeeming that last Cap movie at the same time.

SWPrequelFan815662026-01-05 07:40

I don't know who that team is in the image, but they def aren't the Thunderbolts. They're the Masters of Evil.

Imma be real, the team we got is as close to the spirit of the original Thunderbolts team from the comics as we can get. If introducing the traditional members (i.e. Karla Sofen, Erik Josten, Norbert Ebersol, etc) in the MCU early wasn't an option, I wouldn't change a thing.

JBTriple2026-01-05 11:27

The original Thunderbolts were literally the Masters of Evil in disguise.

SWPrequelFan815662026-01-05 11:58

Not my point. The Masters you're thinking of were a very specific incarnation that Baron Zemo handpicked to masquerade as the Thunderbolts in the absence of the Avengers and FF. The traditional Masters lineup (when they're evil) usually involves heavy-hitters, not D-Listers. The Thunderbolts were a departure in that they were comprised of lesser known supervillains, people that could actually work together as a team, and above all else would actually encouraged by the prospects of heroism because it gave them actual purpose in their lives beyond a spiral of self-hatred and supervillain tendencies.

The team in OP's image is comprised of (with the exception of Ghost) people that are not D-Listers, not likely to work well in a team at all, and wouldn't know a redemption arc unless they got real stupid like Blonsky. The only one that I could even imagine spiraling into self-hatred is Zemo, but that defeats the purpose of having him on the team if he can't be the one character who remains evil to the end.

But even then the point still stands. The Thunderbolts are comprised of Masters that are *D-Listers*. They are the leftovers of the universe, just like how the movie repurposed leftovers of other films. But each character in OP's post (with the exception of Ghost) is a *heavy-hitter*, and usually if there are more heavy hitters on the "Thunderbolts" that you could see failing to live up to the redemptive promise of that brand, then they're the Masters of Evil instead.

Nearby_Parfait39462026-01-05 12:15

Ik I thought the same thing. Apparently they are planning a Masters of Evil in the MCU and most of the planned members are shown here.

SWPrequelFan815662026-01-05 12:22

well that's good. Honestly, I think the best place to put them would be in the Thunderbolts sequel. The Masters should have been done in the Infinity Saga, imo, but shit happens.

PhatNoob_692026-01-05 08:20

Blonsky would fuck off immediately because he already went to therapy.

Zemo would fuck off immediately because he hates superpowered people.

The Leader would fuck off immediately because he already achieved his goal to screw over Ross by turning him into Rulk.

Rulk doesn't seem inclined to take orders, so he'd probably immediately start fighting everyone else, with nobody (Sam) around to talk him down. Ghost probably kills him by phasing through his heart or something.

This is an *even more dysfunctional* team than the canonical one, I can't believe that's even possible.

Nearby_Parfait39462026-01-05 12:16

Ikr. Unless it’s a Daredevil or Punisher related character though, Marvel always somehow waters them down so they would somehow give everyone an excuse to be friendly.

InevitableWeight3142026-01-05 09:20

Comic-accurate Taskmaster would have been perfect ngl. Taunting them about their trauma and past mistakes, and then copying the abilities of the real Avenegrs like Cap, Black Panther, Hawkeye, etc to force the thunderbolts to rise to the level of the avengers

JamesRWC2026-01-05 14:23

You don't know how badly i want titanium man in the mcu

Him and stingray are like the 2 'sleeper' characters i want the most

Then alpha flight would be pretty wizard

White_Falcon_12632026-01-05 16:57

I wouldve watched it if red hulk was in it.

-Boston-Terrier-2026-01-05 17:32

I don't even care who the villains are any more so long as they're straightforward evil villains.

Marvel or maybe Disney keeps pushing "complicated" antagonists on us since End Game and I just don't think it works very well. Having complicated characters where nobody is really good or bad works in a lot of genres but I just don't think superhero movies are among them.

Nearby_Parfait39462026-01-06 03:42

Yeah, that’s why I think someone like Zola would be a great villain for a movie like this. Whereas everyone on the team has some sort of tragic backstory or understandable motivation, Zolas just a N\*zi, can’t get much worse than that. It also goes along perfectly with Val’s line in the movie, “There is a bad guy, and then there is a worse guy, and nothing else.”

PrettyAd58282026-01-05 18:04

Would be so cool to have seen gamma mutates and armored villains going around the mcu it sucks we never got an armor wars incident with Tony Ironman 2 kinda was building towards the idea but the furthest we got was some robots and failed suits and whiplash.

Heisenburgo2026-01-06 04:56

Zemo should have 100% been included, he's the actual leader of the team ffs. I liked the movie but it was very much an "in name only" adaptation

BobDaWaka2026-01-06 23:38

wkabi.

he is exiled from walanda lost his wife. He could be a valuable partner with US Agent.