Rewrites, reshoots and additional photography have become routine partsof the Marvel Studios production machine. It’s safe to say that no two projects undergo the same amount of changes and that they’re not always all-encompassing nor always favorable.
Both Captain America: Brave New World and Daredevil: Born Again were significantly reworked following the 2023 Hollywood work stoppages to varying degrees of success. Brave New World reshot its first act battle, gave The Leader a concerning makeover and shot a very awkward post-credit scene, none of which were well-received by fans. On the other hand, the creative retooling of Daredevil: Born Again, intended to connect it to the original Netflix series, seemed to please the bloodthirsty legion of edge lords who believe the character should suffer in darkness and misery. However, perhaps no project underwent a more complete overhaul than Thunderbolts*.
Originally drafted by Eric Pearson as a sequel to Black Widow, the project’s script was handed off to both Joanna Calo and Lee Sung Jin. Typically, it’s never made clear by the studio just how much a script changes from beginning to end; however, director Jake Schreier veered from the norm in an interview with EW, explaining that very little of the film’s original conceit survived.
According to Schreier, the only big idea from the original script that made it to the big screen was the idea of the mismatched team of damaged people being revealed as the MCU’s New Avengers at the end. The idea was “in the script from the very first draft,” Schreier told EW, adding “Even though a lot of things, almost everything, changed around it.“
“There was the core idea of these operatives sent to kill each other, which I thought was such a neat twist on people expecting Marvel’s Suicide Squad,” Schreier explained. “And then that was the ending, and it went to a very different place, but that was the one thing that was like, no matter what we do, it’s going to end in that place.” Whatever the original version may have been, there will be very few fans disappointed with the direction the studio ultimately chose for the film.
Leave a Reply