SDCC 2024: David Harbour Says Thunderbolts* “Fundamentally Changes” the Marvel Cinematic Universe

Thunderbolts* promises to be a game-changer for the Marvel Cinematic Universe but remains mum on how. Marvel Studios has been quietly building to this team up for years, with Julia Louis-Dreyfus’s Valentina Allegra de Fontaine popping up in projects like The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Black Widow, and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever to both recruit talent and make her power felt. Thus far, Val has scouted John Walker (Wyatt Russell) and Yelena Belva (Florence Pugh). It’s unclear as to what she is building a team for, but as Thunderbolts* ensemble member David Harbour previously teased, it’s going to be big.

“There is a bomb drop thing we add to the universe, which will be very exciting for the movie to do at the end of this particular phase that we’re ending,” Harbour teased in a previous interview with ComicBook.

David Harbour Expands on “Bomb Drop” Tease in Thunderbolts*

Something big is coming for the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s assembly of anti-heroes.

Speaking to ComicBook at San Diego Comic-Con, Thunderbolts* star David Harbour was asked to expand on his previous “bomb drop” tease within the events of his next MCU production.

“Our characters are going to interact with something that we don’t really understand, and it fundamentally changes the course of the way things expand,” Harbour said. “That’s all I’m saying. Oh my God, I’m getting calls tomorrow.”

While this could be anything, much of the mystery within Thunderbolts* seems to tie back into Lewis Pullman’s “Bob.” The Top Gun: Maverick star replaced Steven Yeun in the film, as Yeun was forced to drop out of the project due to a scheduling conflict. It had been reported that Yeun was going to play Sentry in Thunderbolts*, a character with the “power of one million exploding suns” that remains one of the most powerful characters in Marvel Comics. Sentry’s real name of Robert Reynolds also lines up with Pullman simply being referred to as Bob, as Bob is a nickname for Robert.

As for what course-changing role Sentry could play in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, his very presence is enough for the powers that be to call in the big guns. If Harbour is alluding to Sentry as the thing that the Thunderbolts “don’t really understand,” it’s possible that he is treated as a top-level threat from the jump.

Thunderbolts* hits theaters on May 2nd, 2025.