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It’s been months since Marvel Studios added an asterisk to the official title of May’s Thunderbolts*, and despite a poster seemingly answering why it's there those involved say the real answer has yet to be revealed.

“We wanted to do something very different, and capture people’s attention,” executive producer Brian Chapek told Empire magazine in its latest issue. Not that he’ll explain what it means — and neither will director Jake Schreier, who added, “I don’t think I can say anything… I can say that it means something. There’s some general sense of what an asterisk means.”

That may, or may not, be a nod to the fan theory that the real title of the movie isn’t actually ‘Thunderbolts,’ and that fans will only get to find out what it is at the end of the movie. (A common suggestion is that the movie is actually called Dark Avengers, a title adopted by later issues of Marvel’s Thunderbolts comic.) The cast are having fun with that idea, with David Harbour quoted by Empire as saying, “I don’t think I’ve ever seen a movie that’s had people go, ‘What does this mean? Is this the title? Is this not the title?’”

They’re having so much fun, in fact, that some even suggest alternate subtitles for the movie, with Sebastian Stan coming up with ‘Hi, I Like You… Don’t Make Me Kill You,’ while Wyatt Russell (USAgent) offers the snappier ‘Bad Guys Gone Wild.’ At least one cast member is willing to tease the real scoop, however… emphasis on the ‘tease.’ Hey, Florence Pugh? What’s with the asterisk?

“I actually know,” the actress told Empire, before adding, “But I’m not gonna tell you. I hold all the power.”

Thunderbolts* will explain its title when it hits theaters May 2, 2025.

Keep up to date on Popverse's Marvel coverage, with these highlights:

• The MCU needs Anya Taylor-Joy's Magik in it (and not just for the X-Men connection)
• How Disney+'s What If...? is the moonshot for the next 50 years of Marvel Studios & the MCU
• Marvel Studios has accidentally created a new Phase that predates Phases 1 - 6: the MCU Phase Zero
• Overgrown children of the atom: Marvel's X-Men can't evolve past their '90s commercial peak
• The biggest outstanding questions of the Marvel Studios' movies & TV shows
• Donald Trump is the landlord for Marvel's House of Ideas
• Marvel Studios swapping out Doctor Doom for Kang offers the chance to jettison the Multiverse Saga
• What Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige is saying (and not saying) about the MCU X-Men franchise says a lot about the future of the Mutant Saga
• If Marvel is going to bring Loki back for Secret Wars, it's time to give him an upgrade
• In 2021, Sony's boss said people won't miss Spider-Man in its Spider-adjacent movie. Turns out, they do.