The MCU’s Thunderbolts Were Planned To Be The New Avengers From The Start Of The Movie According To Thunderbolts* Theory

One convincing Thunderbolts* theory suggests that the New Avengers were planned from the start and that Valentina really was the mastermind behind the group. The MCU’s most recent release stars an unlikely group of antiheroes, with some of them previously acting as the antagonists of their respective projects. However, the film ends with the group being able to band together to save New York from a looming threat, almost reminiscent of how the MCU’s original Avengers did in their initial group debut.

The twist at the end of Thunderbolts* is that the group is officially dubbed the New Avengers, which is an obvious attempt at replacing the original Avengers that disbanded after Avengers: Endgame. Valentina Allegra de Fontaine is the one who gave them this name, and it seemed like her last-minute resort as the group came close to exposing her intentions. As likely as they may seem, there’s also a theory going around that this was Valentina’s plan from the very start of the film, and there is quite a bit of evidence that could prove it.

Thunderbolts* Sees Valentina Go From Trying To Kill Most Of The Main Characters To Making Them A Superhero Team

Valentina Has A Quick Change Of Heart

Julia Louis-Dreyfus smiling as Valentina Allegra de Fontaine in Thunderbolts* (2025)

Most of the members of the Thunderbolts are working under Valentina at the start of the film. She ends up simultaneously sending them to her OXE base in an attempt to get rid of them, as they are all evidence of some of her shady dealings. Valentina sends them all to a bunker fitted with a timer of self-destruction, hoping to incinerate them along with the rest of the evidence. It ultimately doesn’t work as the group manages to work together for long enough to get themselves out. While disappointing for Valentina, that could’ve been her plan all along.

Valentina’s goal after the Thunderbolts escape her bunker is to take them down before they can do the same to her. When she’s able to turn Bob into his full Sentry persona, she wishes that her new weapon would kill the group. This is a huge jump from where Valentina ends the film, which is praising the characters for their heroics and officially dubbing them a superhero team. Of course, Valentina could’ve made this decision on the fly as an act of self-preservation, but for someone intent on killing the Thunderbolts for the majority of the film, she gives in relatively quickly.

Thunderbolts* Does Leave Hints That Support The Theory Valentina Always Intended For The Team To Become The New Avengers

There Were More Effective Strategies If Valentina Wanted The Thunderbolts ᴅᴇᴀᴅ

If Valentina wanted to take out the members of the Thunderbolts, there surely could’ve been a more efficient and effective way for her to do so instead of sending them into the bunker together. There are so many variables that come into play when you give people the chance to work together, and with how methodical she is, she should’ve known that there’d be the chance that they’d escape. After all, she hired them for their skills in the first place, and she even gives them a timer to work with rather than just destroying the bunker on the spot.

Valentina makes the New Avengers announcement to avoid confrontation with the Thunderbolts. While she seems a bit surprised that the team managed to escape the Void at all, she seems less so with the final result. She announces the New Avengers as if it were something she had prepared for a while, even giving a brief press speech that she seemingly had on hand. Valentina’s whole motive with Sentry was to create an Avengers replacement, so it wouldn’t be out of the question for one of her backup plans to include a new group of heroes.

The Thunderbolts* Theory Would Also Explain Why Valentina Seems To First Recruit Yelena & John Walker

These Two Characters Were Already Seen As Avengers Replacements

Yelena Belova looking confused in Thunderbolts*

Valentina’s first MCU appearance was in The Falcon & The Winter Soldier as she looks to recruit John Walker after his fall from grace. She’s then seen in the Black Widow post-credits scene approaching a mourning Yelena, then feeding her intel on who could’ve been responsible for her sister’s death. John and Yelena are ᴀssumed to be the first two individuals that Valentina recruits, and the only two that are done so on screen. Considering what these two characters represent in the MCU, it feeds into the New Avengers theory entirely.

John was made the official Captain America replacement by the U.S. government, and Yelena took up the Black Widow mantle as a way to honor her sister. The fact that the MCU has Valentina recruit two Avengers replacements to work for her could prove her intent from the start, especially after she pits Yelena against Hawkeye, an original Avenger. Valentina has proven to be a character that is always a few steps ahead, and considering the holes in some of her methods throughout Thunderbolts*, it really could be possible that they were part of her plan the whole time.