Thunderbolts* Super Bowl Trailer: Sentry, the Void and the Villain's Powers Explained

The Thunderbolts* trailer that Marvel Studios showed at the Super Bowl revealed what the film is really about and who its main villain is. That villain is Sentry, kind of, because the real threat is his dark side, the Void, and the trailer gave us our first look at both. When I broke the trailer down at the time, this was one of my most anticipated Marvel movies ever.

The spot that aired during the Super Bowl commercials was only part of the full trailer, which Marvel Studios released online. The first trailer had already introduced Bob, and Bob is Sentry. His real name is Robert Reynolds, and he is a hero. The twist is the other side of him.

Sentry is a hero in Marvel Comics, but the Void is the villain

There is a difference between Sentry and the Void. The Void is a big shadowy monster that exploits people's greatest fears, and it is the true villain of Thunderbolts*. In this film, it looks like the two are going to be one and the same for a while.

In Marvel Comics, Sentry is a big hero. He has an incredibly complicated and dark story, but he has battled Doctor Doom alongside the Fantastic Four. He was an ally to the X-Men. He is an equal to Reed Richards, and he is Spider-Man's role model. So make no mistake: despite his history, Sentry himself is a hero. The problem is the Void.

Robert Reynolds' origin: the golden Sentry serum and Operation Rebirth

In the comics, Robert Reynolds was a meth addict who broke into a laboratory one day. There he discovered a golden Sentry serum and took it, gaining the power of a million exploding suns. The lab was a subproject of the United States' Operation Rebirth, which attempted to create the super soldier serum that Captain America was given, but to magnify its effects 100,000 times over. That is the serum Robert Reynolds took.

From there he became a great hero, with associations with the X-Men, Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four and more. Then came the Void. In the comics, the Void murders over a million people in Manhattan, and it was discovered that the Void was Sentry's own dark side, powered by the abilities the golden serum gave him.

To stop it, Reed Richards, Doctor Strange and Sentry himself made it so that Sentry forgot he ever had powers or knew any of these other superheroes. When they did that, the Void went away. Essentially, the Void is Robert Reynolds' repressed dark persona powered by Sentry's powers, and that is what the trailer shows as the main villain of the film.

The Void's powers in the Thunderbolts* trailer

With that threat looming and no Avengers around, America is worried, and that is where the Thunderbolts come in. The trailer opens with Valentina Allegra de Fontaine saying, "Let's face the facts, the Avengers are not coming." Then it shows New York City being taken over by a shadow, which is the Void.

In that opening scene, Sentry or the Void appears to be killing many people in New York. He simply looks at people and uses his powers to shove them into the ground as shadows. That appears to be a power he has in the comics called umbrakinesis, which is control over darkness. He also has biokinesis, the ability to affect organic matter.

His list of powers is long, from psionic abilities like telepathy to flight to appearing as a giant shadowy cloud. What seems to be one of his biggest powers for this film in particular is the ability to possess people and host them, which is clearly what the Void is doing with Sentry. With this threat in mind, Valentina asks, "Who's going to keep our people safe?" Bucky is in the room for that.

Why Bucky joins the Thunderbolts

The scene where Bucky has everybody tied up comes after the desert scene, where a convoy approaches the team while they are in Alexei's limo. Bucky takes out the convoy, but he also attacks the Thunderbolts. He doesn't want to kill them; he wants answers about what they were doing at the compound seen in the first trailer.

They were each given a mission to take somebody out at that compound, but they all ran into each other, and there they met Bob. From the looks of it, and based on what we know, whoever sent them there, most likely Valentina, tried to have them killed too. Whoever it was seemingly wanted to kill everybody, Sentry and the Thunderbolts, with no loose ends. Bucky hunts them down because he thinks Valentina is suspicious, which she is, and that is how he becomes part of the team.

Bucky is also at the hearing where Valentina says the Avengers aren't coming and a new team is needed. He obviously takes that personally. He was there for Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Civil War, Infinity War and Endgame, and his best friend was Captain America, the leader of the Avengers, who is now gone. So he probably feels a sense of responsibility to carry a new team forward, and he found his group of misfits.

The Thunderbolts team: Red Guardian, Ghost, John Walker and Yelena Belova

Bucky tells the team about the threat while New York is again overtaken by the Void. In that scene the Thunderbolts are Red Guardian; Ghost from Ant-Man and the Wasp; US Agent John Walker from The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, who took the super soldier serum and very briefly was Captain America; and Yelena Belova, adopted daughter of Alexei Shostakov, the Red Guardian, and adopted sister of Natasha Romanoff, Black Widow.

Yelena is confused and asks, "Wait, us? We're going to help you?" That is one of the main points of this movie. These people have done bad things and may have had bad luck in life. They're not exactly evil, but they're not exactly heroes. The trailer also makes a point of showing they don't have typical superhero powers. Bucky, Red Guardian and John Walker have the super soldier serum, though Red Guardian has a Russian knockoff version that still gives him a form of superhuman strength. Ghost can phase.

The only ones with no powers at all are Yelena and Taskmaster. Taskmaster gets some good shots in this trailer, though she isn't in the opening scene and isn't involved much in what we see, so perhaps she dies. We're not sure about that. When Bucky asks, "Why you got some place to be?", Red Guardian says, "I love that guy," and laughs hysterically. Red Guardian took a form of serum himself and has always idolized the Winter Soldier. In another trailer he asks Bucky which serum he got, and Bucky answers the normal one, Hydra. Sentry's serum was derived from the Captain America serum too, so serums are a big part of this movie.

The trailer says they're not super, and Yelena points out that none of them can fly. Sentry can, so she's most likely asking how they could defeat a villain like that. I love her line, "So, what? We all just punch and shoot?" That is what they are about, and it's why I was so stoked for this movie: a group of misfits forced to work together on a mission who come out heroes. The monologue is about overcoming their past, not letting it define them, and becoming heroes who can save innocent people.

Sentry overpowers the Thunderbolts at the old Avengers Tower

To save people, they have to fight Sentry, and the trailer shows some of his powers. He shows up at the old Avengers Tower, which Valentina bought, and makes quick work of the Thunderbolts, telling them, "You thought you were going to be some great saviors. You can't even save yourself."

We see his superhuman strength as he rips off Bucky's vibranium arm and throws it to the ground along with the other Thunderbolts. We see his psychic powers as he grabs Red Guardian with telekinesis and throws him out the window, and he can fly. Right away, he's a very overpowered threat. The team even comes out of the building saying they can't do this, until Red Guardian gives a pep talk and says they are the Thunderbolts. Nobody else seems to agree with that name, which is why I think there's that asterisk in the title, or at least one reason for it.

How I think the Thunderbolts could defeat the Void

I do think the Thunderbolts are going to defeat the Void by separating Sentry and the Void, with Sentry then coming in at the end to help, giving them much of their power. Or they could take a page from the comics and simply sedate him, because if he's knocked out, the Void should be gone. They could also erase his memory to get that done.

They'll have to do something like that, because he's far too overpowered to simply walk up to and knock out. In the end, I believe one of those two approaches is their only real option. It looked like Thunderbolts* was going to be really great.