Key Points
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Lewis Pullman made his MCU debut in Thunderbolts* as Bob/Sentry/the Void.
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The actor tells EW he felt like he ‘didn’t belong’ in the Sentry suit when he first tried it on.
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He also teases his return as Bob (and maybe Sentry and the Void?) in Avengers: Doomsday.
This article contains spoilers about Thunderbolts*… or do we call it *The New Avengers now?
“Bob” may not remember his past, but he’s got a bright future in the Marvel Cinematic Universe after Thunderbolts*.
Lewis Pullman has already been confirmed to return as Bob (and, perhaps, his two alter egos, Sentry and the Void?) in 2026’s Avengers: Doomsday, so his story isn’t over after going through the emotional gauntlet in his debut MCU appearance. But the actor tells Entertainment Weekly that he originally felt like he “didn’t belong” in his Sentry suit when he put it on for the first time.
“Oddly, there was a dissonance, which was very informative for I think how Bob might feel,” Pullman says. “I felt like I didn’t belong in it, despite it being catered to my body. When we put it on [for] a screen test, I was like, ‘Can I just have five minutes alone with this thing?'”
Courtesy of Marvel Studios
Lewis Pullman in ‘Thunderbolts*’
Pullman remembers having to take a moment to be his own “hype man” to feel comfortable in the yellow and blue supersuit. “I had to sit down and walk around and talk myself into it and be like, ‘I am the Sentry, and I can do this,'” he explains. “But it was an interesting kind of meta experience. It was also very helpful [because] Bob still has that even within the Sentry — there’s this insecurity happening.”
Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), U.S. Agent/John Walker (Wyatt Russell), and Ava Starr/Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen) first meet Bob in Thunderbolts* after he was accidentally awoken from his stasis in Valentina Allegra de Fontaine’s (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) secret vault. He was previously presumed dead after an experimental drug trial, but it was later revealed he was the only successful participant. The serum gave him Superman-like powers and turned him into Sentry, but it also tapped into his unstable mental health to create the villainous antithesis the Void.
When the Void took over and threatened to destroy the world, Yelena, Walker, Ghost, Bucky Barnes/the Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan), and Alexei Shostakov/Red Guardian (David Harbour) sacrificed themselves to work together and fight the Void by giving Bob a hug, reminding him that connection is the key to battling isolation, depression, and loneliness. Bob lost his memories of the conflict when he was himself again, and returned in the post-credits scene (which director Jake Schreier told EW was filmed for Doomsday) but revealed he couldn’t become the Sentry again for fear of the Void taking over.
Pullman is excited to dig deeper into Bob’s memory loss and his struggle with the Sentry and Void in his next onscreen appearance.
“I was so surprised and honored to hear that I was going to be able to dip my toes into Doomsday,” he says. “Because I wasn’t sure how much of his memory was lost, and whether he’s covering, or whether it’s really real and he is fully back at square one. And does that mean that he has to relearn all of these emotional valuable lessons that he’s garnered throughout the course [of this movie]? Or is that something that kind of becomes inherently a part of him? It’s a really interesting thing to grapple with as an actor… It could go in a lot of different directions.”
After his initial struggle with wearing the Sentry suit, Pullman reveals he was “thrown in” to the deep end when it came to filming all the action and stunts required for a Marvel hero/villain. The actor received a “really condensed course” when it came to wire-work and “being thrown around,” but wished he had more time to physically prepare overall.
Marvel Entertainment/Youtube
Lewis Pullman as the Void in ‘Thunderbolts*’
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“I did a lot of physical training for this, which we weren’t sure whether it was going to be seen or not, but I didn’t have as much time as we all would’ve liked to prepare,” he says. “But also, physically, Bob is an unassuming guy who’s just trying to literally be so small that he’s invisible often, and then he becomes this larger, more powerful entity. So finding that physically and biologically, that’s very hard to do over the course of just a couple of weeks and show that transformation.”
His first time on set, he watched his costars film the vault fight scene, which really opened his eyes. “I was like, ‘Okay, I’ve got to buckle up here. I’ve got a seriously high bar to meet,'” he says.
This wasn’t the first time Pullman has played a character named Bob who flies. But, he clarifies, playing Bob in Top Gun: Maverick was extremely different from his experience playing Bob in Thunderbolts*. “I didn’t puke or anything while shooting this, which is nice,” he says with a laugh. “So much less G’s to be pulled.”
Thunderbolts* is now playing in theaters.
Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly
