Avengers Tower will have a new name in Thunderbolts, and the movie’s director says it’s “a symbol of things taking a darker turn”

Marvel’s next big-screen release Thunderbolts* is introducing a new group of (anti)heroes to the MCU, but that’s not the only change it’s bringing with it. One of the franchise’s key settings is getting a different name – and new ownership.

Avengers Tower, formerly the New York City headquarters of Tony Stark, Steve Rogers, and the rest of Earth’s mightiest heroes, is now pretty much defunct since Stark’s death in Avengers: Endgame. With no Avengers saving the world right now, the building has fallen into the hands of Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ Valentina Allegra de Fontaine and known, ominously, as the ‘Watchtower.’

“We know what that tower means,” director Jake Schreier said in a recent interview with Empire magazine. “Who’s the person you would least like to own that tower, that means so much to so many people? Can you use that as a symbol of things taking a darker turn?”

The movie follows the titular group, assembled by Val (from her Watchtower, we assume), as they’re forced into a dangerous mission that could bring them all redemption as long as they work together. The cast includes Florence Pugh as Yelena Belova, Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes, Wyatt Russell as US Agent, David Harbour as Red Guardian, Olga Kurylenko as Taskmaster, and Hannah John-Kamen as Ghost.

Thunderbolts* arrives in theaters on May 2 as the final movie in Marvel Phase 5. In the meantime, check out our guide to the other new superhero movies on the way from Marvel and DC in 2025 and beyond.