The biggest villain in the Marvel Cinematic Universe since Thanos has arrived. But why is a group of superheroes — many of whom don’t really have superpowers — going up against someone so formidable? One of the hiding-in-plain-sight mysteries of the upcoming Marvel movie Thunderbolts* is the simple question of why this group of anti-heroes is tasked to save the world, versus whatever version of the Avengers is currently assembled. And now, in the most recent Thunderbolts* trailer, that question may have been sneakily answered.
In the new trailer, the lead villain, Sentry (Lewis Pullman), says menacingly, “Maybe I need to show you want I’m capable of.” Then, we see Sentry reach out his hand and apparently, flatten people into black smudges on the ground. Then we see people simply vanishing from a room. And after that, he says, “Avengers are gone.”
Of note, Sentry does not say, “I’ve murdered the Avengers.” Or “the Avengers are busy.” Simply that, they’re “gone.” In theory, this could refer to the fact that the Avengers as we knew them in the 2012 film, or Age of Ultron or Civil War, are indeed and in fact, disbanded. However, individual Avengers, like Captain America (Anthony Mackie), Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), and Spider-Man (Tom Holland), are all still around. So, is this statement merely a semantic statement, or does it suggest something else?
If we dig deep into Sentry’s origins, combined with what we actually see in the trailer, it’s possible the Sentry didn’t murder the Avengers, nor are they simply missing. Instead, the way in which people seem to be erased in this trailer suggests a different kind of superpower at work here: Perhaps the literal shared memories of all the Avengers have been erased from the collective unconscious, rendering them unreal. Saying the “Avengers are gone” as he demonstrates his power could indicate that Sentry isn’t just using brute force here but something more metaphysical.
Why would that be? Well, in the comics, the origin of Sentry was connected to retroactive continuity and the notion that Sentry himself had been erased from everyone’s memories. Also known as Bob Reynolds, the literal superpower of Sentry is a super strength derived from a serum, similar to what Bucky (Sebastian Stan) and Red Guardian (David Harbour) posses.
But the deeper Marvel magic here is the idea that Sentry has always existed, and something called the Void is what caused him to be unremembered by everyone. But, in some comic continuity, the Void is a part of Reynolds’ personality, meaning, on some level, the memory-altering power is a dark aspect of himself.
So, all that in mind, what we’re possibly seeing in these Thunderbolts* trailers isn’t actually the Sentry proper, but instead, a version of Sentry possessed by the darkness of the Void. And if that’s the case, Thunderbolts* might be hiding a huge twist. This is just a theory, but maybe some of what the Sentry/the Void is doing isn’t entirely literal but rather a massive kind of telepathic manipulation. The stylized way people are dispatched in the trailer seems to match up with this idea. But, more broadly, we know that Lewis Pullman is also returning for Avengers: Doomsday.
And, because that’s the case, the next question is somewhat obvious: If Pullman is back for the next Avengers movie, will he still be playing the bad guy? Because Sentry has a history of a kind of split personality, the good money is that no, Sentry will not stay a villain after Thunderbolts*. For this film, the absence of the Avengers might not just be a matter of plot contrivance to give this group their own movie but instead, setting up a bigger story for 2026.
