Last year, Marvel revealed it had a movie in the works for the Thunderbolts, a team of villains and antiheroes trying to redeem themselves. While the main cast consists of MCU mainstays like Sebastian Stan’s Winter Soldier and relative newcomers in Florence Pugh’s Yelena Belova and Wyatt Russell’s John Walker, the film also has some new additions in The Bear’s Ayo Edebiri and Invincible’s Steven Yeun.
Marvel’s been careful to not reveal who either Edebiri and Yeun are portraying…which makes it all the funnier the latter’s role potentially got leaked by Invincible co-showrunner Robert Kirkman. During a recent stream with artist David Finch, he casually revealed that his “good friend” Yeun (who voices the titular hero in the animated Prime Video series) will be playing the Sentry. [Steven] called me and he said, ‘I just came back from a costume fitting for the Sentry. I guess I only do superheroes that are yellow and blue,’” Kirkman recalled. He immediately followed it up by hoping he wasn’t spoiling anything, then pivoted to just not caring: “I don’t work for Marvel. What are they going to do to me?”
In the comics, The Sentry—created by Paul Jenkins, Jae Lee, and Rick Veitch—first appeared in his own titular comic in September 2000. Originally an ordinary middle-aged dude named Robert Reynolds, he gradually remembers his former life as a superhero with “the power of one million exploding suns.” Upon learning about the potential return of his nemesis the Void, Reynolds gets back into fighting shape and crosses paths with several Marvel characters in order to find out why and how no one remembers him. He later discovers the Void is his other half, and that he previously wiped all memory of the Sentry from the entire world to make sure he wouldn’t reunite with himself.
Sentry has popped in and out of Marvel comics over the years, and when he shows up, it’s sometimes in the orbit of the Avengers. He’s previously been a member of the main team and its Mighty offshoot, and even joined the Dark Avengers counterpart when villains like Daken and Venom were posing as the then-current team. He’s not always a good guy, though; recent comics have made him an antagonist for other heroes due to his often volatile nature and how powerful he is. Other times, a villain has taken his power or hijacked his corpse to use for evil ends.
Power-wise, he’s not far removed from Superman, possessing flight, durability, and superhuman senses and speed. But one distinction he has over the Man of Steel is that he’s actually even more ridiculously overpowered: it’s not entirely clear what limits his powers have (if any), and he has an additional suite of abilities ranging from manipulating molecules and darkness (when merged with the Void) to teleportation and resurrecting himself from death. He generally chooses to hold back and give his enemies a fair shot, but in the instances where he doesn’t, he can be an even greater problem.
At time of writing, Marvel hasn’t said either way if Kirkman’s right about Yeun’s role. But if true, it would be kind of ironic to see the actor play a character who by all accounts, might actually be…invincible. Assuming subways don’t get involved.
Thunderbolts is expected to release in theaters on July 25, 2025.
[via IGN]
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