Did Spider-Man: No Way Home ruin Thunderbolts? Director Jake Schreier reveals how one of the MCU’s biggest film changed Sentry’s origin story.
There’s been quite a lot of talk about Spider-Man: No Way Home when it comes to Thunderbolts. Specifically, why the MCU’s newest (re-)minted hero didn’t come out when Spoilers started happening to the city with the rise of Sentry, and how the events of this film could have impacted the webhead during the project’s climax. Though jokes about “Where’s Spider-Man?” have stretched back since the character’s origin inside of the cinematic universe nearly a decade ago.
Though it seems like Thunderbolts has a much closer connection to Spider-Man: No Way Home than just jokes. Director Jake Schreier recently spoke with Marvel.com about crafting a new version of Sentry for the MCU. According to him, one of the main reason’s that they couldn’t go with a major part of the character’s origin, which was being a hero literally forgotten by everyone else in the Marvel universe, was because Jon Watts beat him to the punch!
“Obviously, we couldn’t tell that same story because of Spider-Man: No Way Home,” Schreier explained “Thanks, Jon…It’s interesting reading that run. When we talked to Paul Jenkins, he would talk about it as a parable for mental health and this idea of an equal amount of good and evil.”
“But when I read Sentry in those comics, there is this level of hubris that he has, and it feels like people around him are getting a little concerned about it. I thought it was so resonant.”
Sentry’s New Origin In The MCU
Yet it seems Sentry being a forgotten hero isn’t the only thing that was changed when adapting the character into the MCU. While this time it wasn’t the fault of Spider-Man: No Way Home, Jake Schreier would go on to say that the hero lacks the split personality that he has in the comics. Rather, his new origin shows that The Void was always a part of him that the events of Thunderbolts brought to the forefront of his mind.
“We wanted to make sure it wasn’t so compartmentalized, that it was always clear that it was one person. It was never this code-switching, or this kind of lily pad–hopping to a completely different person. They are all qualities and parts of one person.”
While some Sentry die-hards may take umbrage with the fact so much about the character’s origin was changed for the MCU, one can’t say it wasn’t effective. Jake Schreier managed to make one of the franchise’s beloved anti-heroes in Thunderbolts, a project that many had already written off as entirely skippable. Now, some people are even calling it better than Spider-Man: No Way Home!
Thunderbolts is now playing in theaters. Stay tuned for the latest news regarding the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel for more content!
