Spoilers ahead for Marvel’s Thunderbolts*.
Marvel Studios has officially retitled Thunderbolts* as The New Avengers. The studio made the announcement on social media Monday with a change to the title on the film’s poster.
The asterisk in the title of Thunderbolts had long been a matter of speculation until the ending of Thunderbolts revealed that Yelena Belova, Bucky Barnes, Red Guardian, Ghost, USAgent and Senty/Bob Reynolds were the New Avengers lineup spontaneously announced by Valentina Allegra de Fontaine.
(And lest you think this is just a social media stunt on Marvel’s part, the New Avengers poster is already being used by AMC Theaters to promote Thunderbolts ticket sales.)
Marvel Studios’ #̶T̶h̶u̶n̶d̶e̶r̶b̶o̶l̶t̶s̶* #TheNewAvengers is now playing only in theaters.
Get tickets: https://t.co/bFq0RNfp6K pic.twitter.com/HWfzmFBANq
— Marvel Studios* (@MarvelStudios) May 5, 2025
Rebranding Thunderbolts as The New Avengers in its second week of release is a shrewd commercial calculation by Marvel Studios and Disney. While Thunderbolts performed well in its opening weekend, topping the domestic box office with $76 million, the Avengers films were billion dollar-grossing blockbusters.
Perhaps the movie will perform even better in the coming weeks now that general audiences know that the film is really a restart of the Avengers franchise.
The New Avengers – along with Sam Wilson/Captain America, the Fantastic Four and the X-Men – will return in Avengers: Doomsday, which is now filming in London. Doctor Doom star Robert Downey Jr. let the New Avengers reveal slip in an Instagram post over the weekend about him and his Doomsday co-stars going to see Thunderbolts but he later deleted the “New Avengers” mention from it.
What do you think of Marvel officially retitling Thunderbolts* as The New Avengers? Let us know in the comments.
