#thunderbolts speculation

[enthyrea]

the void shows you your greatest fear.

[johnwalkerrrrr]

John release Bob

Unleash Sentry

Called by the Void

1. Accidental Catalyst, Emotional Trigger

John accidentally opening the container that freed Bob puts him directly at the center of the Sentry/Void dynamic. And the way he snapped at Bob—harsh, emotional, raw—wasn’t just a plot beat. It mirrored the kind of intense psychological friction that often stirs the Sentry/Void within Bob. That kind of volatility woke something up. It wasn’t just external—it was psychic.

2. He Made Contact with the Void

Whether it was mental, emotional, or metaphysical, contact with the Void tends to consume. The fact that John emerged (even injured or shaken) hints that he has some kind of resistance—or worse, a tether. That could go either way: he could stabilize Bob… or get pulled deeper.

3. Thematic Resonance

John is someone who buries his trauma, who dissociates under pressure, who plays the role of the blunt weapon until he shatters. That mirrors Bob’s duality in a haunting way: Sentry vs. Void, golden light vs. total collapse. Their arcs reflect each other. So if anyone can reach Bob and remind him of who he is—and still be standing afterward—it’s John.

4. Potential Future Role

He doesn’t have to be a traditional mentor or handler. But he could become the only person who can get through to Bob when the lines blur. Like:

Bob loses control. The team panics. John walks into the chaos, and Sentry listens.

Or even scarier: when Void rises again, it’s John who sees it coming first.

John could absolutely be the one who ends up able to wake—or stabilize—Sentry in the future.

[melinoe-cupcake]

Thunderbolts Bob and his mental health condition :

Maybe mild spoilers for the movie :

Bob's mental health condition is not explicitly stated, but was handled with more care and dignity than I expected, because they generalised the solution to it to something that would help other troubles in life too, like Yelenas depression - having friends and company through life to keep demons at bay.

The way they described his past and mental health issues - him feeling invincible and great, and then feeling all the darkness in turns - could this be about Bipolar Disorder? Or something else?

[starcat1701]

Ok, so hear me out - Thunderbolts* has to explain where tf Sam is, right? Because he's Captain America and he should damn well be right smack in the middle of things if people are getting shadowed or whatever is happening in New York.

So, what if, when Bucky captures the others and tells them they have to help him, it starts with Yelena asking 'What about your boyfriend?' And then Walker can be all 'Boyfriend?' and Yelena responds, 'You know, Captain America, with the shield and the wings', and that sets Walker off because he used to be Captain America (cough cough, no he wasn't), and then Bucky can explain whatever tf has happened to keep Sam out of this mess (and it better not be some stupid ass reason like Sam's trapped in the shadow and they have to rescue him), and he can...just...not...address the boyfriend comment at all.

And people who want to read Yelena as joking can do that (and Disney can continue to be cowards), but the rest of us will know better. (Plus cue heart eyes from Bucky whenever Sam turns up in the movie because he is GOING to turn up or I will lose it.)

[jemgirl86]

Hmmm.

Forget about the fact that Sam and Bucky are besties, logically it just simply does not make any sense that Captain America wouldn’t know about Sentry or show up to help for a situation of that magnitude, so there better be an explanation for why Sam’s not around, if he isn’t, and there better be a cameo or a post-credit scene simply because it’s long overdue.

Hell, everything else aside, Sam should’ve been shown or referenced in so many other projects, that if he isn’t shown or even discussed in Thunderbolts* I will actually lose it.

Besides, on a smaller pettier level lol, I’m a big believer in tit-for-tat, so if Bucky got to show up in Brave New World and I had to deal with his insufferable stans trying to make Sam’s entire movie all about him, then it’s only right that Sam should get to show up in Thunderbolts* so I can be as annoying about it as they were about Bucky’s cameo 🤷🏾‍♀️

[sunsetmaidenwrites]

Now Complete on AO3

Yelena Has Questions by SunsetMaiden

“That’s it?” Yelena looked around, watching in awestruck annoyance as absolutely everyone dispersed to do the Winter Soldier’s bidding. “Am I the only one who still has questions? I have questions.”

OR: A one shot based entirely on the trailers for Thunderbolts*. Yelena still has questions for Alexei and Ava after Bucky successfully rallies everyone into a team.

[buckys-sam]

Bucky being charged to assemble a team by Val because the avengers aren't coming when Captain America is his close personal friend is leaving me high key concerned for Sam's health and whereabouts in this Thunderbolts* movie

[mania-sama]

bucky is not the white wolf.

white wolf is just a nickname bucky got in wakanda as a little nod to the white wolf character in the comics, aka hunter. i read somewhere that shuri called him that for fun bc bucky was a lone wolf and the only white man in wakanda. it was always meant as a little fun teasing thing for shuri to call bucky. hence why sam’s title is the only one that changed at the end of the falcon and winter soldier, bucky’s stayed the same.

hunter was t’challa and shuri’s adopted brother, a boy named hunter who turned into the white wolf and became one of wakanda’s biggest villains… which is not bucky at all..

bucky is not the white wolf, he is winter soldier. i have a feeling that they’re going to have him do what he did in the comics which was keep the name but make it his own, he doesn’t need a new title to suddenly be good or himself. to me it’s a powerful move on bucky’s part to use the name he was given and make it into something he can be proud of.

notice how in the thunderbolts trailer they’ve removed “the” from “the winter soldier” that to me says that he’s no longer THE winter soldier, he’s bucky barnes, winter soldier. there’s a difference :)

i really suggest googling hunter and the white wolf and reading about him, ‘cause it shows that it’s not bucky at all, it’s a completely different fleshed out comic character.

I actually did know about the White Wolf being a separate character in the comics, I just think that the MCU is liable to do anything. As mentioned with Joaquin in particular, they changed a lot of his story to fit the screen. There may be no White Wolf in the MCU, or there could be; we don't know officially yet. But we do have the instance of T'Challa calling him this in Avengers: Infinity War (x) (I searched for other scenes but couldn't find any; I don't know if it's out loud said by other Wakandans). Then there's the back-and-forth Sam and Bucky got into during The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, where Bucky clarifies that he's the White Wolf (x). It's not teasing; it's the actual literal title that the Wakandans gave him.

Additionally, comic White Wolf was their adopted brother, as you've mentioned. At the risk of being repetitive, I don't think they are going to do a secret family member thing again. Nowhere in the Black Panther movies has a third sibling been mentioned, and I hardly think they are going to suddenly throw one in. "White Wolf" also makes sense for the role he played in Wakanda as a goat herder. With the association of animal traits and his asylum as a dormant wild animal (presumably with a deal that he would fight for them should they ask, even though they respect him and his healing process: "This one may be tired of war, but the White Wolf has rested long enough"), he is, for all intents and purposes, the White Wolf. He's just not the same White Wolf as the comics.

I think in some cases the usage / disusage of "the" in a title can mean a lot. I'm not sure that's the case here. None of the other characters in Thunderbolts* have a "the" in their title. Disregarding the ones that only use their real names, Red Guardian and Ghost both do not have "the" in the trailer, even though they are "the" of their title. I think the trailer was just formed like that for the sake of continuity and aesthetics. There is no essential difference between saying "The Winter Soldier" versus "A Winter Soldier"; it's still his title, still who he was. A more impactful way to do that is to refer to the Winter Soldier always in the past tense, which... is not what is happening.

Names have an incredible amount of meaning. Names are how you identify something. It literally gives the identity, the meaning, to a person. Mania-sama is my identity; it is who I am, to everyone around me, and to myself. I have my real name, given to me by my parents, and have thus been used for my whole to give me meaning and identity. I have a great fascination with the changing/keeping of names when it comes to characters like Bucky. Because there are two ways to go about it: keeping the name and changing the connotation behind it by your actions, or shedding the name to fledge into something new. Neither is bad and both make for incredibly impactful storytelling. My favorite example of the latter is from the massively popular game, Genshin Impact. A character who had similarly been used by an evil master to kill and eat dreams went by the name of Alatus. After he was rescued, he still used the name for some purposes, but his rescuer gave him the name Xiao. That is the name we use for him in the game, and that is the name he gives us to use with affection and trust. Alatus is for war; Xiao is him.

For Bucky, I think I would prefer if he went under a new name. I wouldn't really want it to be White Wolf, either; I think it would be best if it was something he could give to himself. The agency of his character is important to me. However, that doesn't mean they can't make keeping the identity of Winter Soldier work. I just... don't think he himself fully identifies with that anymore.

But that's my two cents on it, anyway. Thank you so much for the ask! I love talking about thematics. Bucky is a wonderfully fun and complex character to analyze.

[donottouchredbutton]

so i already saw Thunderbolts* on saturday with my mom for her birthday but planned to see it again tonight with my partner for the first time (great movie, highly recommend)

TELL ME WHY Marvel is rebranding and all but changing the name to *The New Avengers literal DAYS after it came out??? does Marvel not care about all of the other people like my partner who haven’t seen it yet who basically have to avoid all social media to avoid getting the biggest spoiler of the movie??? as much as i really liked this movie, it feels more and more tainted by of course the Marvel execs who only care about money and relevance in the pop culture zeitgeist when, and i’ve been saying this for years by now, they make these movies and shows and stories in general less and less accessible to the average person.

not everyone needs to be a ride or die Marvel fan, and they shouldn’t be treating their movies like they should be

[rosmarinblooms]

I think Bucky, seeing in the void some dark version of himself or a horrific scenario, would be really, really calm.

He sees some creepy shit? Well, it’s not worse than the things his own mind feeds him on a daily basis. He had flashbacks worse than this. He has doubted himself for years. Still he lives. One more imaginary nightmare is not a big deal.

[flameandshadows]

*Thunderbolts Spoilers*

GAAAAWWWD DAMN ?!?! POST CREDIT SCENE BUCKY BARNES’ HAIR?!?!? WITH THE LITTLE PIECE HANGING DOWN IN THE FACE??? PLUS SCRUFF???? GIVE ME A MINUTE TO BREATH.

The fuck ass bob has been redeemed!!!! I’m hiding all of the scissors in a 150 mile radius.

*Thunderbolts Spoilers*

[haydenthewitch]

okay but can we PLEASE let bucky fight like he does in catws and civil war for thunderbolts* PLEASEEEE. let me see some golden age super-soilder ruthless efficency PLEASSE. a good arm recalibration I BEGGG. fast hard body shots on body shots I'D DO ANYTHING. give me a cocky smirk. let seb out of his cage. give me a classic gritted-teeath bucky yell. PLEASE. I'D GIVE MY BLOOD MY SOUL MY LIFE MY WORLD MY ORGANS ANYTHING. I'D GIVE ANYTHING. PLEASE THUNDERBOLTS* GIVE ME SOME MOUTH WATERING FIGHT COREO PLEASE PLEASE I'M BEGGING

[shipthroughthepages]

Been giving some thought on Doomsday post BNW, Thunderbolts and random spoilers that have been hinted at.

I think we might see the Thunderbolts go (on the government's/Valentina's orders) and try and fight Doom for some reason, but they are who they are and obviously are toast because they are woefully unprepared for that type of fight. Within that fight one or more die (RIP, Alexei - should have watched your mouth when you were talking on Sam Wilson) and Bob and Bucky are captured (there's concept art of Bucky chained up i believe)

Meanwhile Sam and the real competent avengers are in madripoor on a different mission (x men/mutant related) and that's where Yelena and Ava find them and have to break the news to Sam, who is going to have to finish his own mission and then try and break his dumbass husband and his team out of a supervillain's lair. Eventually the Thunderbolts will realise that heroing is more than photoshoots and PR missions and ask to join Sam's team, punting Valentina into jail where her human experimenting ass deserves to be.

[lexxicona]

Something that’s fascinating to me is that there are things we don’t know about Bob, mostly regarding the timeline of his life prior to him waking up in the vault and the exact timeline of Project Sentry

Things we know/can infer:

Avengers Tower was sold to a third party (one we now know to be OXE group) in 2016, as Happy was moving the last of its contents out of the building during the end of Spider-Man Homecoming, which in turn was shortly after the events of CACW.

Here’s where things get murky and speculative:

Lewis Pullman was born in 1993, so let’s say for the sake of argument that Bob was also born the same year. We don’t know if his job as a fried chicken promoter (where he had his meth episode) was a high school or college job, though my gut feeling is that it was a job he had after graduating high school (if indeed he even finished high school).

The Snap occurred in 2018, and everyone who was blipped as a result was brought forward five years to 2023 (though as we see with Yelena, they perceived it happening instantaneously). This is also the same time the OG avengers team fractured—ignoring those who were added to the team in subsequent phases, Tony and Natasha were dead, Clint was more or less retired, Banner and the Hulk had merged, and Thor had left Earth. This is undoubtedly the point where Valentina realized she had to create a protector for the earth so that someone like Thanos wouldn’t be an issue again—“there’s a bad guy and a worse guy”, after all.

By this logic and under these assumptions, Bob would’ve been 25 when the snap occurred and either still 25 when he was brought back or about 30 during the events of Endgame (depending on whether or not he blipped). Thunderbolts takes place in 2027, meaning there’s a four-year duration in which Valentina could’ve started Project Sentry, Bob could’ve joined, and was presumed dead/defective and thrown out with the rest of the project. I’m personally under the impression that Bob’s powers activating and killing the two people on the walls of the lab didn’t take all that long, meaning he could’ve been in that box for as long as three years (though I doubt it was that long)

[starcat1701]

Ok, tinfoil hat time:

1. We know that Sam has been asked to rebuild the Avengers

2. We know that Thunderbolts isn’t the real name of the film

3. We know that Bucky and Sam are in close contact and Bucky turned up in BNW despite Sebastian Stan going uncredited (this I assume was in case the credits leaked)

The only possible conclusion we can draw from the above is we’re getting a scene in Thunderbolts* where Sam is doing Avengers stuff and Bucky turns up and says ‘I’ve got a team…kind of’ and Sam looks at the hot mess Bucky’s brought along with him and says ‘I guess it’s a start’