I Can’t Believe Thunderbolts* Teased Its New Avengers Twist Before It Even Released By Breaking A 13-Year MCU Trend & I Totally Missed It Until Now

Looking back now, the release date for Thunderbolts* and the way it aligns with the rest of the MCU teased the big New Avengers twist in the film’s ending long before its debut. The ending of Thunderbolts* brought a major revelation for the franchise by having Valentina label the central antihero team the MCU’s New Avengers, skyrocketing them as part of a major new superhero group. The Thunderbolts* post-credits also suggest this has caused tensions between this faction and Sam Wilson’s Avengers, with Captain America suing about Valentina’s new name directly taking the Avengers’ own.

With the Thunderbolts* post-credits also appearing to tie the New Avengers to the story of The Fantastic Four: First Steps – since their ship arrives in the main MCU universe here – and set up for Avengers: Doomsday, its ending is arguably one of the most important sequences in recent MCU history. As such, the decisions made to nod to its importance beforehand look all the more noteworthy, since the New Avengers twist was concealed until the film’s debut – despite its place in the release timeline and the record it broke with its debut giving some early clues about the matter.

Thunderbolts* Had A Unique Place In The MCU Release Timeline

The Final Release Date For Thunderbolts* Is A Notable One

While the main focus on Thunderbolts* before its release was on the decision to have a motley crew of antiheroes band together within its story – and the teased impending appearance of the immensely powerful Marvel characters the Sentry and the Void – the release date for the MCU movie was also decidedly notable. The eventual May 2, 2025 release date of Thunderbolts* breaks a 13-year-long MCU trend, being the first non-sequel MCU film in this time to release during the May release period that has also featured the likes of The Avengers and Avengers: Age Of Ultron.

This slot is also key in that the May release time period has historically contained some of the most important MCU movies – most obviously regarding that of Iron Man all the way back in 2008, and then both Iron Man sequels, as well as Thor, Captain America: Civil War, and the two afore-mentioned Avengers movies, as well as the more recent 2022 addition of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse Of Madness. In fact, the future will only reinforce how significant this yearly time slot is, since both Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars are also set to debut on May 1, 2026 and May 7, 2027, respectively.

The Timing Of Releasing Thunderbolts* Teased That Its Big Ending Twist Way Before We Knew It

The MCU’s Previous Use Of The May Release Slot Is Significant

Given that the May time slot has been taken up almost entirely by movies with major implications for the MCU – and particularly given that both the first two Avengers movies released during this month, and then Captain America: Civil War also provided a major universe-changing story for the overarching franchise – there were early signs that the movie would be far more important to the franchise than it might have appeared from the offset. Indeed, with the Thunderbolts* ending introducing the New Avengers and setting up a conflict between them and the Avengers, this release window makes particular sense.

Since this release window has so often been held by sequels, the decision to feature an entirely new movie in such a vital time period also reinforced the idea that this movie would be an important one – which it certainly turned out to be. Looking at the later promotion of Thunderbolts* under the тιтle of The New Avengers instead, it seems as though the time slot may have very much been an intentional move, particularly since it aligns with the original release date of The Avengers, which released May 4, 2012, drawing a chronological parallel between the real-world origins of the two teams.

That said, I don’t think missing the implications of this time slot is strictly all that hard beforehand. The MCU release schedule has had several changearounds in recent years that can leave it unclear how intentional some specific release windows actively are, and the fact this time slot did previously feature the more self-contained liked of Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2 in 2017 and Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3 in 2023 means that things weren’t as obviously set in stone before its release as they would have looked had Thunderbolts* released in a window reserved exclusively for Avengers movies.

However, with the benefit of hindsight, this detail certainly aligns with the major story ending twist in more than one way. As such, looking back, this was arguably one of the earliest signs something bigger could be afoot for the film – a concept that seems double true given theories had already emerged that the group could end up being the likes of the Dark Avengers, and the asterisk on the Thunderbolts* тιтle only exacerbated such suspicions.

Thunderbolts* Releasing Where It Did In The MCU’s Release Schedule Makes So Much More Sense Now

With The Story Of Thunderbolts* In Mind, Its Release Date Makes Even More Sense

While the main events of the Avengers’ MCU story are understandably largely contained to the Avengers movies themselves, this historically hasn’t always been the case for the franchise, as May 6, 2016’s Captain America: Civil War can attest to, given it’s the movie that fractures the initial Avengers team roster and features a fight between two separate hero factions that splits the group in two. With this in mind, Thunderbolts* effectively does the same thing and during the same point of the year.

Bringing the New Avengers into the MCU and complicating the Avengers’ story in the franchise further is something that’s sure to have some huge ramifications on Avengers: Doomsday and prospective later chapters of the franchise, unless the fifth Avengers film is somehow able to tie up this significant story thread almost as soon as it has begun. And, ultimately, there seem far more benefits to not doing so, since this offers the first real chance for the MCU to expand into some of the other factions that share part of the Avengers name – which could help set up its Young Avengers down the line.

What the Thunderbolts* ending and post-credits scenes fully mean for the franchise will only become clear in the months and years that follow, but they certainly seem to set up a promising major development that the MCU could really use to its advantage in terms of the path it builds going forward. Given this is one of the biggest plot twists in recent MCU history, it’s nice to note all the details that add together to make it even better, and its release date now seems to be another interesting piece of the puzzle that led to this point.