Marvel has renamed its latest release. It's not the first time that's happened

A week after the release of "Thunderbolts*",, the Marvel Studios made another, more on-the-nose move to rekindle the Avengers-era hype it once enjoyed.

The film follows a group of ragtag antiheroes who join together to complete a dangerous mission — a plot which feels strikingly familiar to fans of the first "Avengers" movie from 2011 (except, of course, for the fact that the Avengers were superheroes).

In a seemingly self-aware act, the film renames itself "*The New Avengers" during the credits. But the production company took to social media to officially declare the name change a week after the film's release.

They have a̶r̶r̶i̶v̶e̶d̶ assembled!

T̶h̶u̶n̶d̶e̶r̶b̶o̶l̶t̶s̶* The New Avengers is now playing in theaters. Get tickets:

— Marvel Studios* (@MarvelStudios)

It's not the first time a production company has rebranded a movie after its release. In fact, some of the most important genre-defining films underwent major name changes late in production.

Here are a few of those movies.

Star Wars: Episode IV — A New Hope (1977)

Though it's not the first chapter of the "Star Wars" story chronologically, "A New Hope" was, of course, the first chapter to be released in theaters. But it would have been wildly confusing for the audience George Lucas hoped to assemble to be dropped into the middle of the saga, much of which Lucas had already developed before the filming of "A New Hope."

So, when the film unexpectedly became a hit and proved worthy of an extended franchise, "The Empire Strikes Back" , as Lucas had originally intended. Lucas then went back and added the "Episode IV" moniker to the film's opening scrawl.

Also in the "Star Wars" universe, "Episode VI — Return of the Jedi" — was originally titled "Revenge of the Jedi." Lucasfilm even printed posters with the early name before Lucas ultimately decided "revenge" was out of character for the pragmatic Jedi knight.

Alien (1979)

The sci-fi feature existed under several names before writers Dan O’Bannon and Ronald Shusett settled on the iconic mononym — including "Memory," "They Bite" and "Star Beast" — though none of them felt quite right. It wasn't until the film was in production that O’Bannon and Shusett realized how many times the word "alien" appeared in the script.

Deciding the word could function as both a noun and an adjective, they agreed to use it as the title.

Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

Upon release, the first installment of the "Indiana Jones" saga was simply titled "Raiders of the Lost Ark." However, the film was later retitled to match its sequels, which all have titles that begin with "Indiana Jones and the —".

Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior (1981)

When the first "Mad Max" movie came out, it was a hit in Australia, but American audiences didn't carry the same love for the budding franchise. As a result, when the sequel was released, it was marketed simply as so as not to confuse U.S. viewers.

The Breakfast Club (1985)

One of the most iconic coming-of-age films ever made, the John Hughes flick Then one day, Hughes heard a friend's son refer to his school's morning detention period as "the breakfast club," and the rest is history.

Pretty Woman (1990)

The Julia Roberts rom-com began as a much darker tale entitled "$3,000" in reference to Roberts' character's weekly earnings as a prostitute. But as the film shifted into the lighthearted love story viewers know and love today, it required a new title that reflected the new tone.

Scream (1996)

Horror icon Wes Craven's revival and revamping of the slasher film genre was initially given the much more generic name "Scary Movie" — though it was changed late in production because producers Bob and Harvey Weinstein worried the working title sounded too light-hearted and comical.

Though the franchise consists of characters who are all-too-aware of horror movie tropes, the Weinsteins, founders of film production company Miramax, still hoped to market the movie as a true horror flick. "Scary Movie" was a much more appropriate title for Miramax's bonafide slasher parody franchise that would come four years later.

Begin Again (2013)

Mark Ruffalo and Kiera Knightley's 2013 rom-com originally had a much wordier title: "Can a Song Save Your Life?" But audiences who saw the film at festivals before its wide release had trouble remembering the whole name, prompting the filmmakers to come up with a more palatable label.

Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey (2020)

Despite the positive critic reviews the action flick received, the film — which was released under the long-winded title "Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn)" — opened with disappointing box office sales.

As a result, the film was rebranded to emphasize Margot Robbie's title character and make the film more searchable in an attempt to draw more paying audience members in.

However, the name change wasn't official, according to Warner Bros. The production company maintains it had nothing to do with the rebrand, which it says was done by the movie theaters themselves.