Thunderbolts Almost Had Its Own Wild Red Hulk

As the roll out for Thunderbolts has revealed that the rag-tag team of mercenaries are now your New Avengers (or Avengerz, as Red Guardian put it), more is coming to light about how the film was assembled. Co-screenwriter and story writer Eric Pearson has given post-release interviews talking about Taskmaster‘s original role in the film, as well as the decision not to include Baron Zemo.

Another major change just came to light—this time, regarding Wyatt Russell’s character, John Walker/U.S. Agent. Speaking to the Wrap. Pearson said the film’s line-up before Sentry’s inclusion rested on a reveal that Walker was going to turn into a Red Hulk as the film’s big bad as a fail-safe put in by Valentina.

Pearson shared, “Part of Valentina’s manipulation was that she had tricked him into thinking he needed constant medication but what she was really doing was planting a time bomb in him if she needed to set him off.”

That was intended to break the would-be team apart but instead would serve as another team-building challenge, he said. “Taking Walker, the most antagonistic member of the team, the most abrasive, and then turning him into something that they choose not to kill, but to try and save.”

He continued that the idea “did not feel right” and Walker as the second Red Hulk right after Harrison Ford in Captain America: Brave New World was scrapped. This line of thinking led to including a new character and Pearson suggested Sentry, a character he’d learned about during his time in the Marvel Writers Program.

“I always remember loving the kind of idea of, what if Superman had a version of himself with that was as bad as it was good?” Pearson said of the role Lewis Pullman ended up taking over; it has a similar heel turn that mirrors the inner conflict all the anti-heroes grapple with—”heroic ambition versus self-loathing”—but without a repeat character.

Thunderbolts is now in theaters.

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