After months of anticipation with only small nuggets of information like this (and this), Marvel Studios finally debuted its first full trailer for Thunderbolts* (2025).
In the trailer, which has since racked up 12 million views on YouTube alone, the superhero studio revealed the first look at “Bob” and the actor playing him–the actor who replaced Steven Yeun (Beef, The Walking Dead) after he dropped out of the Marvel Cinematic Universe back in January.
Marvel Studios’ Thunderbolts*
First things first, Thunderbolts*, helmed by Paper Towns (2015) director Jake Schreier, will hit the big screen on May 2, 2025. Following Captain America: Brave New World (2025), Thunderbolts* will close out the current Marvel Phase Five—the Phase that began back in February 2023 with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023).
Since Quantumania, Marvel Studios has been fighting increasing criticism of quality, with projects like Peyton Reed’s threequel and Nia DaCosta’s The Marvels (2023) becoming two of the worst-performing MCU movies in its tenured 16-year history.
That said, Shawn Levy’s R-rated Deadpool & Wolverine (2024) sparked a much-needed positive injection into the MCU, with the Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman vehicle crossing the billion-dollar mark to become the highest-grossing R-rated movie of all time.
While Captain America: Brave New World has been embroiled in controversy, from its casting of an Israeli actress to its apparent extensive reshoot process, chatter about Thunderbolts* has been relatively positive. The drop of the official trailer will give Marvel Studios the boost it needs heading into the closing moments of its current Phase.
The trailer gave the first proper look at the Thunderbolts squad in action. The movie will see the return of Florence Pugh (Yelena Belova/Black Widow), David Harbour (Alexei Shostakov/Red Guardian), Wyatt Russell (John Walker/U.S. Agent), Julia Louis-Dreyfus (Valentina Allegra de Fontaine), Hannah John-Kamen (Ava Starr/Ghost), and Olga Kurylenko (Antonia Dreykov/Taskmaster).
Sebastian Stan, who is surprisingly absent from Captain America: Brave New World, will also reprise his role as Bucky Barnes, AKA Winter Soldier, for the first time in live-action since The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, which aired on Disney+ in early 2021.
The movie will seemingly answer the question of who owns Avengers Tower while also debuting a new character for the MCU: Sentry.
Who is Sentry in Thunderbolts*?
The Thunderbolts* trailer proved that the upcoming Marvel movie will be heavy on the action and will lean into those Suicide Squad-type vibes with its cast. It also gave a first look at Lewis Pullman (Top Gun: Maverick) as “Bob.”
Robert “Bob” Reynolds, known as Sentry, is one of the most complex figures in the Marvel Universe. Created by writer Paul Jenkins and artist Jae Lee, Sentry first appeared in “The Sentry #1” (2000). Marvel introduced him with an intriguing backstory, promoting him as a forgotten hero from the Silver Age whose existence had been erased from everyone’s memory, including his own.
While information on how Sentry will be part of Thunderbolts* is sparse, it does seem that this element of memory loss will be a factor in Schreier’s movie. In the trailer, Yelena Belova (Pugh), U.S. Agent (Russell), Ghost (John-Kamen), and Taskmaster (Kurylenko) are seen fighting inside some kind of cargo bay before being interrupted by Pullman’s “Bob.”
Pugh’s Black Widow asks “Bob” who sent him, and he shows confusion by asking if they were all sent. His clothes, akin to hospital wear, also suggest Thunderbolts* will be exploring the memory elements of Sentry’s backstory. Through his comic book history, Sentry was revealed to have once fought alongside iconic heroes like the Avengers and Fantastic Four while also being the villain, The Void.
Watch the Thunderbolts in action, as well as Bob’s first appearance here:
Sentry’s abilities include superhuman strength, flight, energy manipulation, regeneration, and even telepathy. The Void, Sentry’s alter ego, is a destructive force, representing all of Sentry’s fears and insecurities.
This duality makes him both a near-invincible hero and a walking threat to the world, constantly battling the darkness within himself–a storyline that Thunderbolts* will likely explore, with the movie maybe even setting up Sentry to be a bigger part of the MCU Phase Six and beyond.
Lewis Pullman wasn’t always going to play this complex character, though. Academy Award-nominee Steven Yeun was initially cast as Sentry before dropping out in January this year.
Yeun told Variety at the top of the year that his exit was mainly due to schedule delays and production shifts caused by the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strikes.
“I think for me, time passing and things shifting kind of pulled me out of it,” Yeun told the outlet. “But Jake [Schreier], I know, is going to do an incredible job.”
“I wanna do a Marvel movie,” the Minari star added. “It took a lot of drafts on email to make sure that I conveyed the sincerity of how sorry I was to have to back out.”
When Variety questioned Yeun on what Marvel movie he would like to work on (for context, the likes of Blade, Avengers: Doomsday, and Avengers: Secret Wars are all coming down the pipeline), Yeun explained that it was “too early” to say; “I probably pissed off too many people leaving, so I’m just gonna say, ‘Thank you for having me,'” he added.
“I have some ideas,” Yeun hinted. “But I heard if you put it out there, you’ll never get it, so I’ll keep it close to my chest.”
In contrast to Yeun’s statement, multiple Marvel stars such as Simu Liu (Shang-Chi) and Iman Vellani (Kamala Khan/Ms. Marvel) were increasingly vocal about wanting to be part of the MCU and went on to secure big roles in the superhero franchise.
Pullman, who was recently nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for his role as chemist Calvin Evans in Apple’s Lessons in Chemistry, was revealed to be taking over from Yeun in July during Marvel Studios’ Hall H appearance at San Diego Comic-Con 2024, per Empire. This came after early reports via Deadline surfaced in January that Pullman was set to replace Yeun in the movie.
In another recasting related to the production unrest of 2023, Geraldine Viswanathan joined the Thunderbolts* cast as Mel in January after The Bear‘s Ayo Edebiri stepped away from the project.
Interestingly, Edebiri has been attached to play the role of Anne in The Walt Disney Company’s other billion-dollar franchise, Pirates of the Caribbean, although these reports have not been confirmed by Disney or the actress.
The arrival of the Thunderbolts* trailer comes months after Kevin Feige revealed at CinemaCon 2024 that an asterisk would be getting added to the film’s title. While Feige played coy as to why, saying it will be revealed after the movie’s release, multiple theories have surfaced about it, with the latest being that the Thunderbolt squad will actually become the New Avengers team in the MCU.
Other reports also suggest that the asterisk could signal the arrival of the Dark Avengers rather than the New Avengers.
Related: Marvel Is Being Forced to Scrap Troubled MCU Movie as New Information Comes To Light
Thunderbolts* is directed by Jake Schreier from a screenplay by Eric Pearson, Lee Sung Jin, and Joanna Calo. Alongside the aforementioned cast, Harrison Ford will possibly reprise his role as Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross (and seemingly Red Hulk…), which he will debut in the movie before.
Rachel Weisz and Laurence Fishburne are expected to reprise their respective roles of Melina Vostokoff and Bill Foster in Thunderbolts*.
More on Sentry
Throughout major Marvel events, Sentry’s storylines explore the fine line between heroism and destruction. In “New Avengers” (2005), his unstable nature complicates his role as a team member, and in “World War Hulk” (2007), Sentry is the only hero powerful enough to face the Hulk in his most dangerous form.
His most significant arc, however, comes in “Siege” (2010), where Sentry loses control to The Void and becomes a godlike force that destroys Asgard. Ultimately, he meets a tragic end when Thor is forced to kill him to prevent further devastation.
Related: Elizabeth Olsen Will Officially Return to MCU as Scarlet Witch
While there is no active development on Thor 5, the arrival of Sentry in the MCU could set the heroes on a trajectory that sees the powerful Sentry/The Void take down Asgard.
Despite not having the long history of other Marvel heroes, his role in pivotal storylines and his complex nature leave an enduring mark as both a symbol of ultimate heroism and a cautionary tale about the dangers of unchecked power.
How do you feel about Sentry debuting in Thunderbolts*? Let Inside the Magic know in the comments down below!
