Marvel's Thunderbolts movie can redeem Phase 4's worst villain by bringing back Taskmaster and giving her a bigger role. The Marvel Cinematic Universe's Phase 4 movie slate kicked off in 2021 with Black Widow. The long-awaited solo film for Scarlett Johansson's hero had a lot of great qualities to it, such as introducing Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh). However, Black Widow's villain Taskmaster was one of the movie's weakest points.
The build-up to Taskmaster's MCU debut came with great anticipation over seeing the photographic reflexes powers on display and learning who was under the skull-themed mask. However, Black Widow struggled to make Olga Kurylenko's villain a real threat. The revelation that Taskmaster was Dreykov's daughter did not really land, and the secrecy meant the movie had to conceal much of her story and characterization. Black Widow even fell short in some regards to utilizing Taskmaster's powers. The movie only featured the real-time mimicry abilities in one fight with Natasha Romanoff, leaving many fans feeling Black Widow wasted Taskmaster and her unique abilities.
Marvel Studios now has a very clear chance to redeem Taskmaster and the criticisms levied against her thanks to Thunderbolts. The upcoming movie will bring some of Marvel's biggest villains and anti-heroes together for an as-of-yet undisclosed reason. It is widely expected that Taskmaster will be part of the roster, teaming up in another MCU movie with Yelena Belova and interacting with Baron Zemo and US Agent for the first time. As long as Marvel Studios puts Taskmaster in Thunderbolts, the movie can easily redeem the Black Widow villain by showing more of her story and powers.
Whereas Taskmaster really being Antonia Dreykov was a reveal saved for Black Widow's third act, her identity will not be a secret in Thunderbolts. She is also no longer under Dreykov's mind control. This will give the movie an opportunity to actually explore who Antonia is as a character and what her life has been like since Black Widow and Hawkeye's Budapest mission nearly killed her. Thunderbolts can then provide audiences with some insight into Taskmaster's mind and actually give her a personality, which she had none of in Black Widow as a mostly silent and masked assassin.
After Thunderbolts takes the necessary steps to improve Taskmaster's character, the movie can then concentrate on giving Olga Kurylenko's character some stand-out action sequences. The MCU's potential Thunderbolts team is not a very powerful group of villains. Taskmaster's ability to mimic her opponents will then be quite useful when it comes to fighting whoever is Thunderbolts villain. There are some fun opportunities for Taskmaster to mirror her teammates' abilities and use their moves. If Thunderbolts can show more sides of Taskmaster's character and better explore her powers, Marvel can easily redeem Phase 4's worst villain.
