Taskmaster was killed in Marvel's Thunderbolts to provide a shocking and definitive death early in the movie, which was intended to raise the stakes and introduce real tension among characters who are assassins. The director, Jake Schreier, explained that the movie felt "a little bloodless" before the decision to kill Taskmaster, and since the film is about people who kill for a living, it needed to show that reality on screen. The choice to kill Taskmaster, a significant character from Black Widow and a fan favorite, was deliberate because killing a known character had more shock value and resonance than introducing and killing a new character. This brutal death early on conveyed that anything could happen and established a tone of real danger in the movie. Although Taskmaster was heavily featured in marketing, her death was a late addition to the script and intended to surprise the audience.