In short, it seems that the asterisk in Thunderbolts means that the team are, in fact, Phase 5’s replacements for the Avengers. That tracks with the team’s comic book legacy. Created by writer Kurt Busiek, the first version of the Thunderbolts came to be in the wake of Marvel’s 1996 Onslaught storyline, in which a powerful villain seemingly killed the Fantastic Four and the Avengers. The Thunderbolts presented themselves as a new group of heroes to fill in the gap, but they were in fact longtime Avengers villains the Masters of Evil, looking to take advantage of their enemies’ absence.
A later version of the Thunderbolts were a team of villains brought together by Norman Osborn aka the Green Goblin, who had become a world hero and the Director of SHIELD after stopping the Skrulls in Secret Invasion (which was actually a big deal in the comics, unlike the nothing it was in the MCU). Led by Osborn in his Iron Patriot armor, these Thunderbolts were the new Avengers, albeit filled with bad guys standing in for heroes. Venom became Spider-Man, Bullseye was Hawkeye, Daken was Wolverine, and so on.
In short, the Thunderbolts have always existed in a space without the Avengers, often to nefarious ends. And the MCU as of now has no Avengers. The team that came together in Avengers: Endgame has scattered, as Iron Man and Black Widow both died and Captain America retired. New heroes are out there to take their place, including the new Captain America Sam Wilson and Shang-Chi, but outside of a few teases, no official team has been put together yet.
At the same time, we’ve seen Allegra working in the background to gather her own team. And if her actions in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever are any indication, Allegra has nothing good in mind. She could very much be channeling her inner Norman Osborn and creating her own Avengers, using that team’s goodwill for her own devious ends.
Who knows when the asterisk will be removed and the full title revealed. But until then, Avengers (or Dark Avengers, to use a title from the comics) is a pretty good guess.
Thunderbolts* hits theaters on May 2, 2025.