Does the Thunderbolts director regret the film’s box office performance? Jake Schreier reflects on the final product, including the cut role of Taskmaster.
Despite being one of the best received projects on Marvel’s recent slate, Thunderbolts faced a lot of struggles. This includes both during its release, with the film underperforming at the box office, and during production, with multiple delays and rewrites changing the film. Perhaps one of the most noticeable changes was Taskmaster, who was originally set to be a main member of the team, being shot and killed in the opening act.
There’s been a lot of talk about whether it was the right decision to kill a character like Taskmaster so early on, with the villain’s actor Olga Kurylenko expressing her regrets with how much her role had been cut down. Thunderbolts director Jake Schreier recently addressed this in a chat with Variety, lamenting that it was a necessary evil of the evolving script.
“Yeah, I think Olga has spoken about that. It was something that happened after the strike, when we were redeveloping the script. I know that there are people that have reached out to let me know that they’re displeased with this, and I totally understand that. It’s not something we did lightly.”
“As we looked at the script and tried to do a new version, it was a little bloodless. In order to honor these characters and what they do, being contract killers … to have that movie take place with no one showing what that means didn’t really feel like it would land with as much impact.”
“We considered all versions of it. Obviously, I think Olga is a wonderful actress. It’s a hard thing to do. It’s just showing that, for these characters, this is a thing that’s done, and they feel that all of their lives don’t have a ton of value.”
Thunderbolts Director Speaks On Box Office Blues
The outlet touched on the box office performance of Thunderbolts. While the movie far outpaced a lot of its peers, it still landed below the expectations of a keystone Marvel film. However, these woes don’t seem to effect director Jake Schreier, who admits that he’s just happy to be a part of the experience of so many people loving a film.
“For me, it’s so strange trying to grasp how many people watch these things. It was really fun to go around to audience screenings. You can’t even take for granted that you’re going to get a theatrical release, so to be part of a movie that goes out there — and it really is about the theatrical experience — and people can share it and talk about it and say what they think, whether they liked it or didn’t, and then have that continue, it’s nice to be part of a movie that gets to have that life.”
Of course, Jake Schreier still landed on his feet despite Thunderbolts underperforming. The director is set to helm Marvel’s X-Men reboot, and a second season of his Netflix series Beef is currently in development. So even though the project may have had some major issues, it still ended up being a worthy addition to the franchise.
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