David Harbour Explains the Asterisk in the ‘Thunderbolts*’ Title: “I’m excited for the viewers to see that”

‘Thunderbolts*’ is one of many upcoming MCU releases, but it stands out for several reasons. First, it will introduce the MCU’s version of the Suicide Squad. Second, it will bring Sentry, one of the most powerful characters in Marvel comics, to the big screen.

Initially, the movie was simply titled ‘Thunderbolts,’ but Florence Pugh accidentally revealed the updated logo and title, featuring an asterisk, in a fan video shortly after filming began. At CinemaCon, Kevin Feige confirmed that ‘Thunderbolts*’ is the official title, with the meaning behind the asterisk remaining a mystery until the film’s release.

Several theories have emerged about the meaning behind the asterisk in ‘Thunderbolts*.’ The most popular theory suggests that the asterisk signifies this is just the first movie in a new franchise, with the symbol eventually being replaced by a number upon release.

Some fans speculated even earlier that the films are being shot back-to-back. However, this seems unlikely given Bob Iger’s recent changes to the MCU’s direction, focusing only on guaranteed hits after a tough year at the box office.

A few months ago, the Instagram account Atlanta_filming referred to the movie as ‘Thunderbolts* Part 1,’ though the post was quickly taken down, fueling further speculation.

David Harbour, who returns as Red Guardian, recently sat down with ComicBook to discuss his career and upcoming projects. When the topic of the asterisk came up, here’s what Harbour had to say:

I mean, they retroactively put the asterisk (in). The asterisk was an idea that that someone had…..What can I say that’s not going to get me in trouble? …The asterisk is very cool. I understand why people might put an asterisk there (laughs) I’m excited for the viewers to see that as well. But I, again, I just can’t say anymore.

Harbour also addressed the increasing number of fan theories surrounding the movie and shared his approach to avoiding them:

Yeah, not really. I mean, I’ve started to move away from all of that because I feel like I just run into AI articles.

I’m like, who wrote this? This isn’t even English. But I think that it can get dangerous because I don’t want to hear what everyone’s opinion is about all kinds of stuff about me. But we are very comic book true, which I was pleased about. I think there might be some speculation of what people understand about the comics as opposed to people that have actually read the comics.

I think there’s a lot of experts out there that get very annoyed at things. And if you go back and you actually look at it, you might see something different. I think that we’re very into that idea, and yet it is, of course, very surprising because, you know, I don’t think Red Guardian is in any of the Thunderbolts stuff. So they are adding things like they are adding and surprising you with things. But, you know, there’s a lot of stuff, a lot of stuff that we’ve done to make it comic accurate as well.

Making a movie, you can’t really look outside for critiques because everybody, everybody sees the poster and they have an opinion. You’re like, ‘just watch the two hour movie and if you still hate it. Great. Love it? Great.’ But, like, you’ve got to give us a chance. I think all the speculation in the world is like my fantasies about dying or what. I mean, it’s like you can fantasize about horrific things or whatever until you actually see the thing.

I’m very proud of this movie, what we shot. I hear it’s playing well internally and I’m excited for people to see it. I think it’s going to really surprise people. I think people have seen from the trailer, from the shots. I think it’s a pretty cool direction of the MCU’s sort of making now. And I’m excited to be a part of that.

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