When the massive cast was announced for Avengers: Doomsday, one common reaction from many fans was to wonder why there weren’t all that many members of the cinematic Avengers in the film. Other than Ant-Man (Paul Rudd), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), and Captain America (Anthony Mackie), the vast majority of the cast announced for the next Avengers movies aren’t, at least at this moment, technically members of the Avengers at all.
But what the recently-released final Thunderbolts* trailer could suggest is simple: Maybe by this time next year, our perception of who counts as an “Avenger” could be very different. In fact, nearly everything about the Thunderbolts* trailer — and the movie’s mysterious asterisk — might suggest the new Avengers are hiding in plain sight.
