The next Marvel superhero team is not the Avengers, but the villain they’re facing is kind of a big deal. In the second major trailer for Thunderbolts—revealed during the 2025 Super Bowl—the unlikely anti-hero squad is pitted against a strange villain. In the first trailer, this character was barely glimpsed, and this time, we finally see him in action. So, who’s the big bad in the next MCU blockbuster?
The answer is: Sentry, a Marvel character who first appeared in the comics starting in the year 2000. In Thunderbolts, Sentry will be played by Lewis Pullman, probably best known for Top Gun: Maverick, but also the star of the recent 2024 Stephen King adaptation ‘Salem’s Lot, as well as Josh Brolin’s excellent sci-fi western series, Outer Range.
In the first trailer back in 2024, Sentry was only known as “Bob,” but here we see him with a cape, wielding his power and taunting the Thunderbolts. “You thought you were going to be some great saviors. You can’t even save yourselves,” Sentry says in the trailer, though, we never see his face during these moments.
In the trailer, we see that Sentry is clearly more powerful than Bucky (Sebastian Stan), and is capable of besting Bucky’s robot arm, and using his power to destroy entire buildings. His superpower in the comics derived from a super-serum (sort of like Bucky and Captain America), but his backstory is a bit stranger.
In Marvel comics lore, the idea of Sentry is this: He’s always existed in the Marvel universe, but everyone has amnesia about him. Essentially, Sentry is the ultimate retcon, which could be a game-changer for the MCU.
This means that on some level we haven’t even seen the true nature of the character. He’s not just some random guy with super-strength, he’s potentially a character who has knowledge and ties to the entire history of the MCU, which could lead to several flashbacks.
Right now, Thunderbolts looks like a standalone romp, but the history of Sentry could mean that this movie’s lore will run very deep and that the entire continuity of the MCU could get turned on its head.