Following his notable appearances in Captain America: Civil War and the Disney+ series The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Daniel Brühl’s character, Baron Zemo, was initially considered for Marvel’s Thunderbolts. However, the character’s involvement was ultimately not meant to be, despite starting as a major villain and becoming more sympathetic as he spent more time in the MCU—a trait that would have made him a good fit for the misfit team-up movie. Additionally, Baron Zemo has several connections to the Thunderbolts in the comics.

In an interview with Screenrant, one of the writers of Thunderbolts revealed that Baron Zemo was included in an early draft of the film, reverting to his villainous ways.

According to Eric Pearson, “I think there was a version of a tag written a long time ago [where] it was revealed that Baron Zemo was pulling some strings from prison or whatever,” although he wasn’t entirely sure of the details.

Pearson further explained, “I feel like there might’ve been a version where a tag where Zemo had broken out and swapped places with someone … [but] I think those ideas lived for one iteration and then died. Sometimes people think that we’re zagging on purpose, and it’s like, ‘No, we know that Zemo is very integral to a different story version of them.’ He’s part of putting [the Thunderbolts] together, and we negated the need for that with our very premise.”

Pearson noted that with Yelena at the center of the story and the introduction of the Bob character, Zemo “just didn’t fit,” despite the film drawing inspiration from the source material. He added, “There’s always the discussion of, ‘Well, if there’s a way to cleverly include Baron Zemo in this, he absolutely should be there.'” Ultimately, the stories didn’t align, and Zemo was left out of the final version.

What are your thoughts on this potential plot change? Would you like to see Baron Zemo return to action? Thunderbolts is currently in theaters.

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