Thunderbolts Originally Had a Different Villain (& They’re a Member of the Team)

WARNING: There are Thunderbolts* spoilers ahead! The original plan was for John Walker — a.k.a. U.S. Agent — to be the main villain of Thunderbolts*, according to writer Eric Pearson. In that scenario, Walker would have been similar to Thaddeus Ross in Captain America: Brave New World — a human time-bomb powered by Super Soldier Serum rather than gamma radiation. Pearson told ComicBook that this version of the movie was “fine,” but it didn’t strike the tone he was looking for. He felt that adding in Bob Reynolds unlocked the story he was really looking for, though many of the ideas were already in place even before that.

“There are a couple of versions where part of Valentina’s manipulation of them, for John Walker, she convinced him that his Super Soldier Serum was deteriorating and he needed updates,” Pearson explained. “He needed to have monthly shots. What she was actually doing was implanting a ‘Hulk Bomb’ or I think she even called them ‘A Bomb,’ which is a very obscure character from the comics. But if she needed to create an event, she could set him off, so he would rage out into this big monster. It was fine, but it didn’t work the same.”

Searching for that emotional impact is what pushed Pearson away from Walker and led him to Bob. He explained his thought process blow by blow, saying, “It was fun to make Walker detestable and then make him the person they had to save and have that be his big breakthrough of, ‘Oh, my God. What an assh— I’ve been.’ At that point and realizing this wasn’t working after a couple of times, I just had this, ‘Wasn’t there a comic where Superman was blonde and he had Satan as his alter-ego?’ I went back and read the comics and I was like, ‘Yeah, The Sentry is pure good and The Void is pure evil.’”

[RELATED: When Will Marvel’s Thunderbolts* Stream on Disney+?]

“I was like, ‘What if it’s less vague as that and it’s more self-esteem and heroic ambition versus depression and self-loathing and isolation and loneliness?’” Pearson went on. “That’s all our characters’ journeys lumped into one villain, one person, who can be their antagonist. It gave everything we wanted.”

This insight into the writing process is interesting to consider when looking ahead at Sentry’s significance to the Multiverse Saga — and the possibilities for John Walker in the future as well. Thunderbolts* is in theaters now.