20 Biggest Wasted Opportunities In The MCU

Thunderbolts is a brilliant movie, a genuinely moving, down-to-earth drama about a group of traumatised soldiers brought together by regret and poor judgement, that would honestly be near-perfect were it kinder to co-lead Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan).

One of the MCU's most compelling and tragic characters, Bucky has been a mainstay in the franchise since Captain America: The First Avenger, and throughout his run has served as a loyal sidekick, a brutal villain, an unstoppable assassin, a welcome source of comic relief, and finally a bona fide hero. 

In Thunderbolts, he's become a failing politician brought back to the fight by the emergence of Sentry (Lewis Pullman), a supreme being with a dark side called Void that casts all he touches into nightmares based on the victim's most painful memories. 

In the film, it's Yelena who the audience see in the Void, but we never get to see Bucky's nightmare. Given the fact the Void would have allowed Bucky to clash with his own alter ego, the Winter Soldier, this feels like a major missed opportunity, especially since Bucky spends so much of the Thunderbolts playing second fiddle to those around him, always slightly outside the main action.