Thunderbolts Storyboards Reveal A Major Marvel Character Was Cut From The Team

Marvel Studios’ “Thunderbolts*” assembled the most motley crew of heroes in the Marvel Universe yet, and turned that collection of ex-assassins and criminals into the New Avengers. The Thunderbolts/New Avengers stand out mostly due to their lack of flashy superpowers, aside from Ghost’s (Hannah John-Kamen) intangibility and Bob/Sentry’s (Lewis Pullman) shadow-controlling alter ego, the Void. The rest are merely highly trained humans, some with a boost from knockoff super-soldier serums.

But a leaked storyboard frame, credited to artist Anthony Winn, show a much stranger character was considered to appear in “Thunderbolts*” — The Man-Thing, aka Dr. Ted Sallis. (See the storyboards of Man-Thing in “Thunderbolts*” below.)

A mix of science and magic turned Ted into a giant being made of plant and swamp matter, the Man-Thing. Created in 1971 by Stan Lee, Roy Thomas, and Gerry Conway, Man-Thing has been a member of the Thunderbolts in the comics. Including him in the movie would be drawing on that history.

“Thunderbolts*” director Jake Schreier previously said, in an interview with SFX Magazine, that he had wanted Man-Thing to appear in the movie. But Marvel had other plans for the character, and “it all worked out for the best.” Those plans were the 2022 Disney+ special “Werewolf by Night,” where titular werewolf Jack Russell (Gael García Bernal) saves Man-Thing from being hunted by the monster hunters of Bloodstone Manor. Personally, I’d think “Werewolf By Night” setting up Man-Thing’s existence in the MCU would’ve made it easier for “Thunderbolts*” to include him, but apparently that was not the case.

It was rumored that Marvel Studios was considering a “Thunderbolts” movie for several years before “Thunderbolts*” actually arrived in theaters come 2025. Rumors from 2019 suggested a completely different team line-up was in consideration: Ghost, Zemo (Daniel Brühl) from “Captain America: Civil War,” Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell) from “Iron Man 2,” and General Thaddeus Ross (the late William Hurt), Emil Blonsky/Abomination (Tim Roth), and Samuel Sterns/The Leader (Tim Blake Nelson) from “The Incredible Hulk.”

Ghost is the only overlap between this lineup and the final movie’s. Instead, a mostly-reformed Abomination guest-starred in Disney+ “She-Hulk” while Ross (recast with Harrison Ford in the role) and the Leader were key villains in “Captain America: Brave New World.” Zemo returned in Disney+ series “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier,” which introduced eventual Thunderbolts member John Walker (Wyatt Russell). Zemo (who, in the comics, founded the Thunderbolts) was planned to appear in a “Thunderbolts*” post-credits scene, but the idea was scrapped.

The final cast of “Thunderbolts*” pulled mostly from 2021’s “Black Widow,” and could’ve gone even further. “Black Widow” villain Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko) shows up at the Thunderbolts’ first meeting but is killed by Ghost. She was meant to have a larger role originally, but that wound up on the cutting room floor.

While he didn’t make it into “Thunderbolts*” and hasn’t been seen since “Werewolf By Night,” will Man-Thing return to the MCU? In a recent episode of “VisionQuest,” the assassin Paladin (Todd Stashwick) mentions tangling with a werewolf who is a nice guy during the daytime. That’s almost certainly Jack Russell, so the MCU hasn’t completely forgotten about “Werewolf By Night.”