WARNING: There are spoilers for Thunderbolts* ahead! Screenwriter Eric Pearson has been very blunt about his biggest surprise in Thunderbolts*: the unceremonious death of Antonia Dreykov, a.k.a. Taskmaster. Pearson told ComicBook that he did not know about Taskmaster’s death until he saw the movie himself, and that in his final draft of the script, she had lived through the end. In another interview with Polygon, Pearson shared more details on his story for Taskmaster and the part she played in the rest of the movie. It’s an interesting glimpse of what was cut, though we can only speculate about why.
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According to Pearson, his script saw Taskmaster bonding with Ghost in what he saw as “a pretty big subplot.” He felt that these two would form a friendship pretty easily and naturally “as people who’d grown up in labs and been controlled that way.” We learned in Ant-Man and the Wasp that Ghost grew up in a S.H.I.E.L.D. facility as they sought to weaponize her quantum shifting abilities, while we learned in Black Widow that Antonia was rained in the Red Room under the direct control of her father, General Dreykov.
“And Ava, having won her autonomy earlier in the chronology than Taskmaster, was kind of big-sistering her a little bit, in a way of ‘how to break free and be your own person,’” Pearson explained. He also liked having Taskmaster on the team to ground the melodrama and self-pity of the other characters from time to time.
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“I mean, everyone in there has suffered a ton of tragedy,” he said. “But she was kind of the ultimate tragedy. In the old tragedy rankings, she was at the top, and the other, bigger personalities — no one could get out of line, because no one could say ‘I had it worse than you.’”
Pearson had envisioned Taskmaster as the least logical of the group, and the loose cannon. He wrote a recurring joke where Taskmaster continues trying to kill John Walker long after they’d all realized they were sent to the vault by Valentina to die. Between her memory loss and her exceptional powers, it sounds like she would have filled a role similar to the Hulk in the original Avengers lineup. However, Pearson suggested that maybe this subplot was removed because it was too similar to the main plot, where a friend turns out to be the main villain.
“That could contribute as another reason why they chose to bring her out of the movie,” he theorized. “Bob was obviously having memory issues as a big part of his character.”
If Taskmaster ever returns to the MCU, fans are hoping the character will be a lot more faithful to Marvel Comics. As for Antonia, anything is possible. Thunderbolts* is in theaters now.
