MCU Star Teases Return After Being Killed Off
An MCU star whose character was killed off in 2025 is hinting the story isn’t over, reigniting buzz about shock returns in the Multiverse Saga. Speaking with Deadline, Olga Kurylenko reflects on playing Taskmaster and suggests Antonia Dreykov’s arc may not be finished.
Well, that didn’t take long. Olga Kurylenko just hinted her MCU story might not be finished, even though her character, Taskmaster (Antonia Dreykov), got taken off the board in 2025’s Thunderbolts. If you felt that exit was abrupt, you’re not alone — and apparently, there’s more to the decision than what made the final cut.
What Kurylenko is saying
Talking to Deadline, Kurylenko explained that Taskmaster’s early death wasn’t set in stone from the start — the script kept evolving, and the movie was juggling a lot of faces.
"They were changing the stories, I think that [there were] too many characters."
She also reminded everyone of Marvel’s favorite habit: no one stays gone forever, especially in the Multiverse era.
"The thing is with Marvel, you never know. The superheroes die all the time, and they’re never dead. In one in one story, you disappear, suddenly you come back… I think you just never die."
How fast Taskmaster was dispatched
If you blinked, you might have missed it. Taskmaster is killed off in under 18 minutes. After a single scene and exactly one line of dialogue, Hannah John-Kamen’s Ghost puts a bullet in her head. That’s it. The moment landed like a shock cut for anyone expecting a bigger arc — especially since Thunderbolts was Kurylenko’s second MCU appearance after Black Widow and the character had shifted from straight-up villain to more of an antihero.
Why the movie did it that way
Behind the scenes, the team knew cutting Taskmaster that early would sting. They talked about pushing the death later, but director Jake Schreier decided not to load that emotional weight into the back half because it would hang over the rest of the movie and tilt the balance he was aiming for. So the tough call stuck: quick exit, no lingering.
Could she actually come back?
Short answer: of course she could. It’s Marvel. And the Multiverse Saga is already rumored to be teeing up alternate versions of major heroes — yes, including chatter about a new T’Challa — so Taskmaster is hardly a closed case. Here are the cleanest paths back:
- A Taskmaster variant from another universe shows up, same skillset, different history.
- Marvel keeps Antonia Dreykov’s fate as-is but passes the Taskmaster mantle to someone new.
Either way, Kurylenko’s comments feel like a gentle nudge to not write off Antonia or the Taskmaster identity just yet. Given how little screen time the character got in Thunderbolts, there’s plenty of room for Marvel to pull a reversal later — and they do love a reversal.