He’s the puppet master who tore the Avengers apart. The brains behind The Thunderbolts in the comics. And yet, as Marvel’s anti-hero team gears up for their big-screen debut, Baron Zemo — Daniel Brühl’s sly, symphonic villain — is nowhere to be seen.
Fans clocked it the moment the lineup was revealed at D23: The Falcon and the Winter Soldier’s Yelena, Red Guardian, Bucky Barnes, Taskmaster — yes. Zemo? conspicuously missing. Now, director Jake Schreier is breaking the silence on the MCU’s most curious absence.
"There was no version that I was presented with where that was ever true," Schreier told Dexerto.
From the first draft he read, Zemo was never on the roster. Even as characters shifted and evolved through early development, Brühl’s fan-favourite mastermind remained benched.
The absence stings harder given Zemo’s comic book legacy — not just as a member, but as the founding member of the original Thunderbolts, a team of villains disguised as heroes in a move so deliciously deceitful it could only come from Zemo’s mind.
Schreier acknowledges the disappointment, admitting that "some corners of the internet are not so happy about that." But he insists the new film still nods to that original spirit — villains, grey morality, masks behind masks — just "from a different angle."
Will it work without Zemo pulling the strings? That’s the real twist Marvel fans will be watching for.
