The end of Marvel’s Thunderbolts * caused a disagreement between the writer and the director

It is a real damage “Thunderbolts *” did not do more than in the box office. The first film Marvel Studios for some time with something to say should have been a greater success, but with so much work against the genre of superheroes in 2025 and the lack of major heroes in its distribution, the film has never really been lucky.

The reality is that, following his prolonged difficulties, Marvel Studios needs more event films. In 2024, “Deadpool & Wolverine” erased the box office, suggesting that the company may well be able to transform its cinematographic fortune. Unfortunately, 2025 took a bad start for Marvel Studios with the news and forgetfulness of spare which was “Captain America: Brave New World”. After this disappointment, all eyes were on the next film and the last episode of phase 5 of the Marvel cinematic universe: “Thunderbolts *.”

In many ways, “Thunderbolts *” is the anti-“Deadpool & Wolverine”. It is an emotional punch of a film which ultimately matured the MCU by demonstrating that its individual chapters can really explore significant themes beyond the promotion of the next episode of the franchise. The film is a long allegory of depression or, more precisely, human resilience in the face of the challenges of mental health and untreated trauma, weaving an unusual story which ends with a celebration of human connection as one of the most powerful weapons of the battle against our darkest moments. However, it seems that a crucial aspect of this end has proven to be controversial enough for the writer and director of the film to be able to agree on the way in which he should be transmitted.

“Thunderbolts *” could have disappointed certain filmmakers, because it is less a real film Thunderbolts and more than one introduction surreptitious to a new Avengers team – hence the ” *” included in the title of the film on posters. But for fans who were waiting for Marvel to prove that his films could be more than the attractions of the themed park, Martin Scorsese described them with so much precision as “Thunderbolts *” is a special film.

It was not only that the film had something to say about solitude and depression. His performances were also excellent, in particular the representation of Lewis Pullman of Bob / Sentry / The Void. The character (s) serves as a film antagonist, but Bob just starts a confused guy with mental health problems before he was transformed into a sentry by Valentina de Fontaine de Julia Louis-Dreyfus. A killing switch designed to limit the power of Sentry finally turns when he transforms it into a vacuum, a character who is essentially a manifestation of the depression and trauma of Bob. In order to save the world from being subsumed by the darkness of the void, Yelena Belova by Florence Pugh and her group of anti-heroes from Ragtag must literally venture into the dark corners of Bob’s mind to save him from his own past trauma. In the end, the crew manages to bring him back with what is essentially a big group hug, the reassuring that he is not alone and the fate of his world in the shadows.

It was this group hug that turned out to be so controversial. Addressing the Hollywood Reporter, Eric Pearson (who co-wrote “Thunderbolts *” with Joanna Calo) revealed that he and director Jake Schreier could not agree on the opportunity to refer to this final embrace as a “group hug” or not. “It’s absolutely a group hug,” said the writer. “I think I wrote a line that was a comment on this:” Have we just saved the world with a group hug? “Retrospectively, reference makes him terrible, and he was absolutely right on this subject.” Pearson continued saying that his script note probably “embittered” Schreier on the idea that this last moment of being a “group cuddling”, adding, “I am not talking for him. On the page, it probably laughed, but if you applied it to the film, it would have been” EW. “It would give you the Ick.”

Although a large part of “Thunderbolts *” is surprisingly dark in its representation of the mental health struggles of its characters, it is ultimately a film on hope (and undoubtedly a better film on the hope that “Superman” by James Gunn). Without this final embrace, however, the hope aspect would not have been as effective.

Jake Schreier, who will direct the “X-Men” restart of Marvel, spoke to Comingsoon.net of the end and recognized that a hug was the best way to conclude the story that the film was trying to tell. As he said:

“Hope was like:” Okay, well, we don’t want it just a conversation or speak it, like, can we visualize, can we dramatize this internality? “And this is what led to all these empty rooms and this trip.

He continued to talk about the difficulty of his creative team and the rest of the film’s creative team to establish Bob as a character so that they could “win this moment” when the Thunderbolts kiss him at the very end. The director also added that it was not “supposed to be literally a hug” either; It is rather a moment when the heroes collectively draw Bob from his dark me. However, you want to describe it, so I think it’s just to say that Schreier, Eric Pearson and Joanna Calo have all really won the moment. Rather than feeling Maudlin, it resonates as a truthful representation of the way in which individuals can be supported by dear beings during their darkest moments.