Marvel Fans Are Already Divided By The Thunderbolts Trailer's Villain Reveal

A new trailer for "Thunderbolts*" dropped during the Super Bowl, and the few hints it gave about the new villain was enough to stir a little controversy among some Marvel fans. Fans already knew that Lewis Pullman would be playing Robert Reynolds, AKA Sentry, but they didn't know until now just how accurate his portrayal would be to his comic counterpart. 

In the comics, the character becomes especially dangerous when his alternate persona, the Void, takes over. As /Film's Devin Meenan explained in his piece about the Sentry, the Void is not only pure evil but he's borderline unstoppable. The Super Bowl trailer shows that movie Void will be the same; we see him flying around and turning a random civilian into ash, which sure seems like the action of a baddie far too powerful for our heroes to handle. 

"Sentry is gonna be a LETHAL THREAT. The team genuinely looks horrified going up against him," tweeted Marvel enthusiast Jordan Jones after the trailer dropped. Most fans seemed impressed by just how scary Sentry/Void seems in this trailer, but also concerned about the implications of this. As one viewer posted, "Bob Reynolds better not be a one off character and defeated by some bulls**t." Another fan on the r/Marvelstudios subreddit commented on the trailer, "How can they beat the Void if they can't fly? Makes zero sense."

Both r/Marvel and the r/Movies subreddits' reaction to the trailer seems mostly positive, although one user, u/In_My_Own_Image, wondered what kind of plot demands would have to be met for a team like Thunderbolts to realistically stand up to the Sentry. Overall, the fandom response seems generally optimistic. However, there is a some trepidation over just how much, or little, Marvel has planned for Sentry. As one fan commented on YouTube, "I hope Sentry is more than a one movie character, I really want to see more of him."

"Is the villain too strong?" is an awkward problem for a film to have. A lot of action films struggle with keeping the stakes high and making the audience believe that its main characters can truly die at any moment. With "Thunderbolts*," however, the problem is that fans can believe in the danger a little too easily. For instance, based on how little Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko) appears in the trailer, most are adamant that she's a total goner. 

"Taskmaster is not making it out of this alive," tweeted one fan. Another fan shared this sentiment, writing, "Funny how they don't care how obvious it is Taskmaster is dead in most of this movie." The fans seem to believe Taskmaster will get the same treatment as Slipknot in 2016's "Suicide Squad," who was killed off surprisingly early into the film. Slipknot's death served a clear narrative purpose of setting the stakes, but it was disappointing to fans who liked Slipknot from the comics. 

But the main concern among fans seems to be that the villain will cause so much damage it'll make this movie a bleak slog to watch. Well, that or the movie will resort to some sort of lazy deus ex machina to let our main characters save the day without major casualties. As the Thunderbolts themselves would be happy to admit, they're not that powerful. They can't take on someone like Void without a major trick up their sleeve.

"Thunderbolts*" has often been described as Marvel's answer to DC's "Suicide Squad" movies, but did it pick the right one to respond to? The first "Suicide Squad" film in 2016 picked a villain that was similarly way too powerful, causing viewers to wonder why the government thought this team would be the right ones to tackle the problem. Meanwhile, 2021's "The Suicide Squad" picked a villain that felt a little more grounded; yes, the team eventually has to take on a giant alien starfish, but before that it felt like a fairly low-stakes espionage storyline. (At least, low-stakes by comic book movie standards.)

While the choice of villain sure implies that "Thunderbolts*" is making the same mistakes of the first "Suicide Squad" movie, the rest of the trailer offers fans plenty of hope that it isn't. The trailer promises a character-focused movie that allows these established anti-heroes to bounce off each other in fun, surprising ways. The dark, comedic tone sure seems a lot closer to the second "Suicide Squad" film, which most DC fans agree was easily the stronger of the two.

It's also worth considering the possibility that the "Thunderbolts*" writers have fully anticipated this fan complaint. Sure, Sentry/Void seems way too powerful in the brief clips we've seen of him, but maybe they've added in a few weaknesses or limitations that he didn't have in the comics. The trailer was pretty light on the details about the movie's villain, after all, so it's best not to rush to judgment. "Thunderbolts*" releases in theaters May 2, 2025; let's at least wait until the next trailer drops before assuming the worst.