A Thunderbolts Star Officially Confirmed Marvel's Worst Kept Secret

The cat is out of the bag, even though it was hardly in the bag at this point anyway. What cat, precisely? Well, Marvel is putting together a team of bad guys trying to do some good with next year's "Thunderbolts*," the film that will officially conclude Phase 5 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. We're going to see a lot of familiar faces in the movie, including Florence Pugh's Yelena Belova and Sebastian Stan's Bucky Barnes, aka the Winter Soldier. Meanwhile, MCU newcomer Lewis Pullman is joining the fun as a character who's simply been referred to as "Bob" in the film's marketing thus far. However, it turns out Bob is actually someone pretty important ... as many Marvel fans were already well aware.

David Harbour is also returning as Red Guardian following his debut in 2021's "Black Widow." Harbour recently spoke at D23 Brazil (via ComicBookMovie.com), and talked a bit about Bob, who we've seen choice bits of in the "Thunderbolts*" trailers up to this point. The "Stranger Things" actor then confirmed that Pullman is, indeed, playing the character Sentry from the pages of Marvel Comics. Here's what he had to say about their relationship in the film:

"Yeah, I don't think he knows what to make of that. I mean, again, we'll have to see how it unfolds with all of that [...] I don't think you guys know much about Bob/Sentry yet, so you'll have to see what that becomes in this movie. I don't want to give too much away."

Thus, the worst-kept secret Marvel has going right now is out in the world. Anyone who cares enough about this movie to be reading this either A) already knew that Bob is actually Sentry or B) doesn't consider that a spoiler. Option C) is that casual moviegoers don't know who Sentry is anyway, so there are still plenty of surprises in store, even if that name is out there in a more official capacity.

Marvel is clearly in on the bit right now. Calling a guy something as simple as Bob and having him pal around with a bunch of not-so-good guys might be a little funny and intriguing to the average viewer. But it's also been widely reported by reputable publications for months that Marvel was casting for Robert Reynolds, aka Sentry, for the film. Steven Yeun ("Minari") was originally set to star in "Thunderbolts*" as Sentry before Pullman stepped in.

For those who may not be familiar, Sentry is a very powerful figure from the Marvel Comics universe with a wild history. While there is too much to dive into here, the gist of it is that Sentry is an extremely dangerous character whose power level is comparable to Superman, only he's far less stable. He first appeared in a Marvel Knights miniseries in 2000 before playing prominent roles in books like "Dark Avengers." Robert Reynolds, his alter ego, has a personality disorder, and one of those personalities is his archenemy The Void.

There's a lot going on there, and that could present some wild situations for the titular team of misfits to deal with in "Thunderbolts*." It also remains to be seen how Sentry is going to be factored into the film itself, including his backstory, where he's been in the MCU this entire time, and whether he will ultimately be an ally or a nemesis that needs to be dealt with. So yeah, to call this a spoiler would be overblown.

Jake Schreier ("Robot & Frank," "Paper Towns") is directing "Thunderbolts*," which also stars Hannah John-Kamen (Ghost), Julia Louis-Dreyfus (Valentina Allegra de la Fontaine), Wyatt Russell (John Walker), and Olga Kurylenko (Taskmaster). The film is set to hit theaters on May 2, 2025.