If you’ve been keeping up with all of Marvel’s various TV shows and movies over the last several years, then you might have recognized everybody in the recent Thunderbolts* trailer. The upcoming MCU film brings together a slew of returning B-tier characters from the past, with Florence Pugh’s Yelena Belova in the lead. But one character you might not have recognized was the mysterious Bob, who is making his debut in Thunderbolts*. So, who the hell is that guy and why is he so important?
Bob, played by Top Gun: Maverick’s Lewis Pullman, appears in a handful of shots during the trailer that immediately make it clear he is the comic character Sentry. Created in 2000 by Paul Jenkins and Jae Lee, Sentry is essentially Marvel’s answer to Superman. He’s an indestructible man with powers ranging from super speed to super strength, flight, super sense, and a lot of other super stuff. If you understand who Superman is, you’ve got the basics of Sentry down already. But the character, who goes by the alter ego Robert Reynolds (or Bob!), has more going on than just being an analogue for the Man of Steel.
The history of the Sentry goes way back into Marvel’s past, pre-dating the first appearance of the Fantastic Four. Sentry showed up on the scene as a hero who quickly became friends with big names like the FF, the Avengers, Spider-Man, and others. Unlike Superman, whose powers originate from his alien origin and Earth’s yellow sun, Sentry got his powers (as many Marvel characters do) from a failed attempt to recreate the Super-Soldier Serum that created Captain America. During his tenure as a hero, Sentry often fought with his archenemy Void, until realizing that the only way to defeat his nemesis was to stop using his own powers. This included Sentry wiping the minds of everyone in the universe, including himself, of any memory of Sentry.
That’s where the original 2000 series picks up, with a mundane Bob Reynolds remembering his past life as a hero, with the universal memory wipe also explaining, in the lore of the comic book universe, why Sentry had never appeared prior to this date despite having a long history with the rest of Earth’s greatest heroes. One wrinkle to that story, however, is the exact nature of Void. For a while it was believed that the Void was a super-villian who was hell-bent on destroying Sentry, but over time it is revealed that—gasp!—Void is actually a dark personality of Bob himself.
That’s the basic gist of Sentry’s whole deal, but a lot of that might not be entirely relevant to his appearance in Thunderbolts*. As we see him in the trailer, Bob appears to be locked inside some sort of secret government facility that the Thunderbolts* break into, unaware of what’s really inside. Later on we see Bob in the aftermath of an attack by government soldiers, noticeably un-injured despite his clothes being shredded by bullet holes. We also see Sentry’s signature S symbol in the trailer at one point, all but confirming Lewis Pullman’s Bob is Sentry.
Considering Thunderbolts* appears to be Marvel’s Suicide Squad more than anything else—a boring but predictable take on the characters—I’d wager that Bob, who is essentially a living super-weapon, serves as a McGuffin for the film, one that Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ Valentina Allegra de Fontaine will seek to control or capture by way of her Thunderbolts*. Naturally the Thunderbolts* will develop a conscience over the course of the movie and team up with Bob to fight against the woman who brought them together in the first place. Sentry also wound up joining the Dark Avengers in the comics, and if the running theory that the asterisk on Thunderbolts* teases a name change for the team, then there’s a good chance that’s what this team becomes. If anything, it’ll be nice to see Lewis Pullman’s take on the character, as well as finally seeing Florence Pugh take the lead in a Marvel project. Thunderbolts* is set to release on May 2, 2025.
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