Here’s What Taskmaster Was Originally Going to Do in Thunderbolts

When writer Eric Pearson sat down to watch Thunderbolts, something shocked him. Which was unexpected, considering Pearson is not just credited with creating the film’s story but co-writing its screenplay with Joanna Calo. And yet, as the film unfolded, Pearson was surprised to see a character he had written a full and complete arc for, no longer make it to the end of the film. Pearson, who wrote Black Widow and helped write Fantastic Four: First Steps and Thor: Ragnarok, was surprised to see that Taskmaster, the Black Widow villain played by Olga Kurylenko, died in the film’s first act. “When I sat down to watch the first cut, one thing was totally different and shocked the hell out of me, and it was that,” Pearson told Polygon. “Everything else, I was like, ‘Yeah, that’s the movie that I wrote!’ But that decision … it was decided after my work.” In Pearson’s version of the film, Taskmaster not only survives to the end, but she also plays an integral role in the team. For example, he ... Read full article.