The latest Thunderbolts* trailer is here thanks to the Super Bowl, and we’ve finally got a good look at the movie’s villain. Sort of.
Over the course of the two minute trailer (30 seconds of which aired in the Super Bowl), we see the team joining together to face… Something. There are people being turned into shadows on the ground, a big black cloud enveloping New York, and a strange, flying figure in the air. Is it a bird? A plane? Superman?
Nope. As suspected, but presumably being held back for either the movie and/or the accidental reveal in the McDonald’s Happy Meals, the villain of Thunderbolts* is The Sentry. Or, more specifically, The Void, the villainous alter-ego of the character being played by Lewis Pullman, aka Bob Reynolds.
That’s a lot of names for one character, but The Sentry is one of the most complicated characters in Marvel Comics. Created by Paul Jenkins, Jae Lee, and Rick Veitch in 2000’s miniseries The Sentry, the character was retconned into the Marvel Universe as a Superman-level character with the power of a thousand exploding suns. However, when we encounter him in his shlubby human form of Bob, nobody in the Marvel Universe remembers him. He needs their help — and to become The Sentry again — in order to stop the all-powerful The Void from destroying everything.
The twist is that, as mentioned earlier… The Sentry is The Void. And that means Bob is the very evil he’s trying to stop. The smartly written and gorgeously drawn miniseries deals with serious issues like Dissociative Identity Disorder and depression, through the lens of superheroes. And subsequent stories have also tackled mental issues, through the lens of a character split in three.
Given we’ve already seen Pullman introduced as Bob in earlier trailers, it’s pretty clear there’s some sort of riff happening here. And in the trailer, we not only get a glimpse of The Sentry’s blonde hair, but him flying in the air… And that ominous black cloud that the Thunderbolts team is facing down. So yeah, the Thunderbolts* villain is The Sentry, aka The Void. Whether it rolls out exactly like how the character appeared in comics, TBD. But given it’s a character dealing with his mental state, fighting characters who all seem to be heavily depressed… Good theming, Marvel.
Here’s the official synopsis for Thunderbolts*, per Disney:
Marvel Studios and a crew of indie veterans who sold out present “Thunderbolts*,” an irreverent team-up featuring depressed assassin Yelena Belova alongside the MCU’s least anticipated band of misfits.
The film stars Florence Pugh, Sebastian Stan, David Harbour, Wyatt Russell, Olga Kurylenko, Lewis Pullman, Geraldine Viswanathan, Chris Bauer, Wendell Edward Pierce, with David Harbour, with Hannah John-Kamen, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus.
Jake Schreier directs “Thunderbolts*” and Kevin Feige is the producer. Louis D’Esposito, Brian Chapek and Jason Tamez serve as executive producers.
Thunderbolts* hits theaters on May 2, 2025.
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