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This Article Contains Spoilers -
WARNING: This article contains major spoilers. If you do not wish to know vital information on plot / character elements in a story, you may not wish to read beyond this warning: We hold no responsibility for any negative effects these facts may have on your enjoyment of said media should you continue. That is all. |
| NOTE: This article is about the incarnation of the Void from the Marvel Cinematic Universe film series. The mainstream version can be found here: The Void (Marvel). |
| “ | Why would a god take orders from anyone at all? | „ |
| ~ Sentry as Void to Valentina Allegra de Fontaine. |
| “ | You thought you were gonna be some great man? Some savior? You can’t even save yourself. We will always be alone. | „ |
| ~ Void speaking with Bob. |
The Void is the main antagonist of the 2025 Marvel Cinematic Universe superhero film Thunderbolts*. He is a mysterious dark entity that lives within Robert "Bob" Reynolds, dubbed the Sentry, a super powered individual who suffers from amnesia. As the Void, completely shrouded in shadows, he is invincible, spreads darkness, and can turn people into shadows.
He is portrayed by Lewis Pullman.
Personality[]
As the embodiment of Bob's dark side, the Void is a nihilistic cruel being that holds a god complex upon believing himself to be a god that takes orders from no one. Due to his nihilism, he judges all life as pointless, though holds particular contempt for his good half; despite his belief that everything is pointless, he can also be strategic-minded, as his torment of Bob also increases his overall powers.
He can be bemused at the efforts of those who challenge him due to his certainty in his own powers, and finds sadistic and barbaric glee in seeing their struggle. He lacks mercy and compassion, seeking only to trap everyone in a void that forces them to relive their trauma over and over.
Appearance[]
As The Sentry, Robert Reynolds maintains an upright and confident posture with a striking appearance. His costume is of a gold metallic hue, along with dark blue and grey accents outlining various parts of his costume (such as his legs and his chest/hip area.) On his arms, he wears two bracers with two golden outlines. The Sentry's costume also has a dark blue and grey collar on the neck. On his hip area, he wears a decorative belt in a blue color with a large "S" point acting as a focal point for the costume. His boots are in an angular fashion with a divot at the top of it and golden outlines on the top area of the boot and the shin area respectively.
Regardless of form, he still maintains medium-length hair that is wavy in nature and flows slightly.
As The Void, Robert Reynolds appears as a dark silhouette, leaving a large shadow against the sky and ground. His posture has been slouched slightly, but remains steady and firm. His essence is like an absence in nature, leaving no light or color with the exception of his two glowing eyes. In this form, he lacks facial or the fine details compared to his Sentry costume. Compared to the Sentry form, he fights within a different nature instead raising his hand leaving his victims to be consumed by an absolute darkness.
History[]
Early Life[]
| “ | Bob/The Sentry: That is where it started. (referring to the room where he finds the most difficult room to overcome) I was roaming around Southeast Asia. I'd figure something else, at least find more drugs, and there was this guy - started talking to me about a medical study. A trial drug to make me stronger. Felt like a miracle. I finally get to show everyone that I was something more. That I was.. something. The Void: And look what you unleashed. The most shameful thing of all is thinking you could be anything more than nothing. |
„ |
| ~ Bob tells the Thunderbolts the story of how he signed up for the Golden Sentry project, before the Void interrupts him. |
Robert Reynold's birth date is unknown. As a child, he grew up with abusive parents - an enabling mother and an abusive father who frequently abused his mother. Robert mentions to Yelena that this room is quiet compared to the others, which he finds much worse and painful to experience. Yelena and Robert look through the floorboard, and notice that the memory is of Robert as a young boy. In the memory, he warns his father once more not to touch his mother. His mother tells him to stop and disallows him from speaking, which he ignores. His father mocks him and laughs at him, sarcastically calling him a "hero" before asserting himself as one. His mother begs him to stop as she sobs, telling him that he always makes it worse. Robert ignores her before his father refuses to tolerate his behavior and begins to abuse him with a belt, from which Robert looks away as Yelena comforts him.
As a teenager, it is implied that he was a troubled kid as a result of his abusive upbringing and frequently resorted to petty crimes (such as theft, arson and the drug trade) in order to cope with his life. He managed to get a job at a Chicken restaurant as a mascot, but this was short lived as his mental health and drug addiction managed to get the best of him before he was fired.
Finally as an adult, he managed to find himself homeless in the streets of Southeast Asia with no support or money. A doctor from OX corp approached him and asked him to participate in a medical study that could make him stronger. Robert agreed and participated in the trial. The rest of the participants died, but following the completion of the study his memory was erased and he was placed in a cryogenic capsule, being forgotten about until U.S Agent, Taskmaster, Yelena, and Ghost/Ava Starr managed to open up his cryogenic pod, awakening him and setting the events of Thunderbolts* into motion.
Throughout all these events, the Void was present but it was not able to attain physical form until he received the Golden Sentry Serum and the "killswitch" was activated by Valentina Allegra De Fontaine.
Thunderbolts[]
Yelena Belova was assigned orders by Valentina Allegra De Fontaine, the director of the C.I.A to destroy evidence within a classified fortress in the middle of the desert which had fortified defenses. Valentina lied to Yelena, saying that she was given open access to the building and it should not have any fortifications. Upon entering, Yelena entered a room where the evidence was said to be held but the doors locked on her before U.S Agent came out of hiding and began to attack her. Ghost also came out of hiding, followed by Taskmaster who engaged in a brief struggle with them before she was shot in the head by Ghost as she managed to sneak up on her while she was vulnerable. During the intense firefight, Yelena retreated to cover in which she accidentally activated a cryopod.
The three ceased their fire when they heard the coughing of an unknown person as he was awakening from his cryopod slumber. The man walked in front of them and raised his hands as the three raised their weapons against him. He introduced himself and raised his hands, telling them that his name was Bob and that he did not know how he got there. The four deducted that the reason they were sent there is because Valentina views them as liabilities and living evidence that would get her incriminated with possible hefty fines and jail time.
They also managed to deduce that the room was an incinerator and worked together before it destroyed everything in the room, including Taskmaster's corpse. Once they escape the incinerator room, they ask if Bob is okay to which he nods. He touches Yelenas hand, and it is here where we see The Void first appear, manifesting as a mindscape of her darkest memory in which she was forced to kill her best friend in the Red Room as a child in order to progress in the program.
From here, the four escape into a vault using Taskmaster's tools which they pocketed off of her corpse. Together, the Thunderbolts along with Sentry argue and bicker back and forth on who should be doing the pushing before they decide as a group to push themselves up the shaft, which is very uncomfortable and painful for them.
After they make it near the exit, Sentry touches U.S Agent/John Walker making him experience his worst memory. Once again, the Void appears as an incarnation of his worst memory when U.S Agent neglected his wife and son - which is later revealed within the film that the both of them left them as he was being neglectful and hurtful towards them.
Realising that Bob was a successful subject of the Sentry program after all, Valentina personally joined her mercenary troops at the O.X.E. warehouse as to apprehend him. To help the Thunderbolts escape Valentina's mercenary squads, Bob stole an assault rifle and fired into the air to draw attention; before Valentina could protect her project, the mercenaries all fired upon Bob, finally stopping after she ordered them. Despite the gunfire, Bob rose unharmed, and flew into the sky, however, lacking control, he plummeted to ground and lost consciousness.
Valentina restarts the Sentry program, having Bob taken to the former Avengers Tower, now the partially refurbished Watchtower. When Bob awakened, Valentina acted comforting for him and manipulated him into accepting his role as her superhuman the Sentry. When the Thunderbolts, who were joined by Yelena's adopted father Alexei Shostakov/Red Guardian and Bucky, siege the Watchtower, they fight a security team before Valentina simply invited them to join her on the top floor. The Thunderbolts insist that Valentina will pay for her crimes, but she confidently rejected their declarations, ending with telling Bob to join them - but now in his golden supersuit as the Sentry.
The Sentry asked that his former acquaintances surrender, but they refuse; a hectic fight breaks out, with Sentry completely dominating the anti-heroes, eventually forcing them to retreat. Valentina ordered the Sentry to fight the Thunderbolts again in front of the press as to cement him as the Earth's mightiest hero; however, Sentry refused, with his Void half influencing him to note how the Thunderbolts were no threat to him, thus he didn't need to kill them, and that Valentina herself was merely a human that he - "a god" - wouldn't need to obey. Valentina almost activated the killswitch that terminates him, but he pinned her against the wall, leaving her to drop the remote. Before Sentry can kill her, Valentina's assistant Mal activated the trigger, which appeared to kill Sentry.
While Valentina and Mal depart, the dark shadow of the Void began to encompass the Sentry's body. Valentina's disposal unit couldn't find the Sentry's body because now becoming the Void, he had flown outside to hover above the city. The Void declared the meaninglessness of life, and began turning people into shadows, trapping them in a prison of trauma within his mind.
The occupants of two attack choppers are turned to shadows, leaving the helicopters to lose control, crashing into buildings and construction near the Watchtower; the debris falls to the street, but everyone is saved by the Thunderbolts individually and as a team. The crowd cheer for their heroics, however, the celebration was cut short as the Void continued to banish people into shadows.
As the Void's darkness continued to spread, Yelena willingly allowed herself to be made a shadow, much to Alexei's horror. Yelena was returned to her first Red Room test that forced her to witness it again and again, until she broke through a psychic wall, although ending up in another Red Room memory in which she was the fastest to assemble a firearm, thus the instructor whipped the other girls' hands for "failure." Yelena noticed Bob in a mirror, yet upon turning around, the memory remained the same. Yelena again broke through a psychic wall, now forced to see a memory of herself passed out from drinking vodka and despair in a bathroom; after wrestling herself literally, she noticed Bob in the mirror again. After gaining his attention, Yelena managed to break into Bob's memory, which was him alone in an attic, above a memory of his father abusing his mother, which his child self tried to stop, only to be degraded by both parents.
Yelena tried to convince Bob to undo the growing shadow and return the banished people, however, he revealed he wasn't in control of it, since it was the actions of his dark side, the Void. When Yelena managed to convince Bob to fight back against the Void, the entity began flinging objects in the attic at them; they are almost overwhelmed until they are joined by the other Thunderbolts, who deduced Yelena's plan. Realising the way to reach the Void was to force their way through Bob's darkest memories, they join him in the ordeal - first his abusive father, then when he was high on meth when acting as a mascot, before reaching the laboratory in which the Void first manifested.
The Void demeaned Bob for believing he could anything more than nothing, and blaming him for the growing darkness. The Thunderbolts were restrained by lab equipment as Bob confronted his evil half. While Bob appeared to be gaining the advantage, his fight against the Void was actually making it stronger; Bob had the Void pinned while punching him, yet the latter laughed as its scheme was being fulfilled. Yelena was first to break free and managed to reach Bob to comfort him with a hug; the other members of the team also join the embrace, which stopped Bob's attack, leading him into breaking down into tears, yet finally feeling loved and appreciated. The team were returned to the world, as were all of the other victims of the Void; Bob was left amnesiac about the recent crisis, but was happy when Yelena said she would remain by his side, as would the team, leaving the Void sealed for the time being.
Powers and Abilities[]
- Artificially Enhanced Physiology: To be added
- Superhuman Strength: His physical strength is so immense, he can even bend and break titanium.
- Superhuman Durability: He is invulnerable to any physical attacks, with even bullets and high explosives not even slowing him down.
- Superhuman Speed: He can move in bursts of speed so fast that it appears to be teleportation.
- Flight: Sentry/The Void can fly at speeds that can easily exceed the speed of a fighter yet if not higher, however he prefers to move slowly as The Void as he lets the darkness consume his victims.
- Telekinesis: Sentry/The Void has the ability to move matter in a way that is unstable, as demonstrated by The Sentry breaking a glass of water as they were preparing his costume. He also forcibly threw two helicopters from the ground to attack civilians before he absorbed them into the void.
- Matter Manipulation: Within his shadow dimension, he recreates memories into physical forms and can manipulate the elements within it. He can also make his victims immortal when captured, as he can torture them beyond their limits yet not killing them.
- Darkness Manipulation: He is able to generate an ever-growing shadow that banishes people into his mind, in which they will be forced to witness their worst memories without end.
- Telepathy: Through touch, he can view anyone's deepest memories, though seems to only conjure the negative ones.
Equipment[]
To be added
Quotes[]
| “ | You can't outrun the emptiness. | „ |
| ~ The Void proclaiming his power inescapable |
| “ | It will always be just us... | „ |
| ~ Void to Bob before his defeat |
Gallery[]
Promotional[]
Images[]
Trivia[]
- The Void is the second Marvel Cinematic Universe villain to be the evil alternate personality of an overall heroic and/or well-meaning character, following the Green Goblin.
- Steven Yeun was initially casted as Robert Reynolds/Sentry, and by extension of the Void, partly due to his role as Danny Cho in the Netflix show Beef, where he worked with Thunderbolts director Jake Schreier, who envisioned him for the part once Marvel Studios hired him to direct the film. Yeun later had to turn down the role, due to the scheduling conflicts caused by the 2023 Writers Guild of America strike, leading Lewis Pullman to be casted in the role instead.
- The official announcement of Yeun initially playing the character was accidentally leaked by The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman, who revealed the casting decision in a podcast due to being informed about the role because of his friendship with Yeun.
- According to Jake Schreier, production designer Grace Yun designed the Void's shadow powers by bashing herself on the images of the shadows created by the Hiroshima, Japan atomic bombing of World War II.
External Links[]
- Sentry on the Heroes Wiki
- The Void on the Marvel Cinematic Universe Wiki
- The Void on the Marvel Wiki
- The Void on the Marvel Movies Wiki
- The Void on the Disney Wiki
