If you've seen the recent trailers for Marvel's Thunderbolts, you will have spotted a mysterious floating figure turning people into black stains on the floor. This was our first glimpse of The Sentry/The Void character coming to the Marvel Cinematic Universe in the upcoming "Thunderbolts*" movie, due in theaters starting May 2.
But who exactly is The Sentry, what are his origins, powers, and comrades in the fight against justice, and what’s the deal with his evil subconscious manifestation, The Void?
We’ve got you covered in this informative guide that offers up everything we know about the extremely powerful entity, his first appearance in the Marvel movies, and the actor who portrays him in the feature film.
Who is The Sentry/The Void?
Sentry is a conflicted Marvel Comics superhero whose real name is Robert “Bob” Reynolds. In the comics, he's a middle-aged and slightly overweight man living a fairly ordinary life, until one day he remembers that he's actually The Sentry, an extremely powerful superhero.
If you break it all down to its purest form, Sentry is basically Marvel Comics' version of Superman, albeit a crusader with a terrifying psychological secret regarding a dark reflection of himself.
What are the Sentry's superpowers?
As described in that 2000 miniseries, Robert "Bob" Reynolds is a regular 40-something-year-old guy who recalls that he was once a shining superhero star with "the power of a million exploding suns." This shock and awe power was the result of ingesting a revamped mixture of Captain America's Super Soldier Serum in his younger days, rebranded as the Golden Sentry Serum.
His greatest foe was a malevolent being known as The Void, which is actually a facet of his own repressed psyche. A Yin to his Yang. The negative version of his altruistic Sentry self.
Memory and mental illness remain key concepts in Sentry's psychological makeup, as the only way to vanquish the dark, destructive part of “Bob's" fractured personality was to force everyone to forget they ever existed.
With his mind and the entire planet’s wiped clean using a memory-erasing psychic virus, Reynolds and the rest of humanity simply forgot he was once a formidable member of the Avengers, who lives out his life in total obscurity.
Like most superheroes in comic books, their origin stories get embellished and altered over the years, and Sentry is no different. Once the Void was said to be the result of the enhanced serum, it was later added that an alien intelligence also bonded with "Bob's" brain.
As a result, his list of superpowers is vast, including the traditional metahuman abilities of flight, super speed and strength, mental telepathy, shapeshifting, light projection, and concentrated energy bolts.
What are the Void's superpowers?
When The Void persona emerges, all hell and darkness break loose as this sinister silhouette is able to disintegrate anything into a shadowy puff simply by raising his hand.
Added to his roster of crazy powers are faster-than-light flight, molecular manipulation, and swift regeneration. Only a brief taste of these stunning abilities are shown in the new "Thunderbolts*" trailer, and it's gonna be a tall task for the misfit Thunderbolts to defeat The Void, considering he can shatter Hulk’s bones and dismember immortal gods like cheap tissue paper.
Exactly how the Sentry and the Void play out in "Thunderbolts*" is being debated, but it's likely Bob Reynolds' light and dark facets will be on full display with one emerging victorious against the team-up of Red Guardian, Black Widow, Winter Soldier, U.S. Agent, Ghost, and Taskmaster.
When did The Sentry first appear in the comics?
Marvel Comics writer Paul Jenkins and artist Jae Lee conceived The Sentry, with concept elements contributed by Paul Veitch. The character's first appearance was in "The Sentry" miniseries with a premiere cover date of Sept. 2000. His origins came with a bit of marketing shenanigans in the the debut comic that proclaimed Sentry was a "long lost" Stan Lee creation in collaboration with an obscure artist named Artie Rosen from the '60s.
It was further fabricated that Jenkins unearthed some concept art sketches by this unknown illustrator and resurrected the character for the Marvel Knights line. But that was all baloney, as it was first and foremost Paul Jenkins and Jae Lee's manifestation, but it sure made for a great fake backstory that even Stan Lee played along with in interviews. Marvel actually commissioned John Romita Sr. to draw a mock cover and concept sketch, which were assigned to the made-up "Artie Rosen."
Which actor is playing The Sentry/The Void?
The superhero/supervillain also known as "Bob"/The Sentry/The Void will be played in the Marvel Studios "Thunderbolts*" movie by Lewis Pullman.
Lewis is the son of "Independence Day" actor Bill Pullman, so he's got sci-fi greatness in his genes, but he's also got some serious credentials of his own. He was excellent in the Prime Video paranormal series "Outer Range" alongside Josh Brolin.
Marvel Studios' "Thunderbolts*" strikes theaters on May 2, 2025. It will be available to stream on Disney+ at a later date.
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