THUNDERBOLTS* Writer On Absence Of Street-Level Superheroes During Void Attack, Deleted Scenes, And More

THUNDERBOLTS* Writer On Absence Of Street-Level Superheroes During Void Attack, Deleted Scenes, And More

Thunderbolts* writer Eric Pearson has addressed the absence of street-level superheroes during The Void's attack on New York, revealing some deleted scenes from Vault Level 5 and original plans for Bucky.

By JoshWilding - May 06, 2025 06:05 AM EST
Filed Under: Thunderbolts
Source: Screen Rant

Thunderbolts* ends with The Sentry's darker half, The Void, unleashing his darkness across the entirety of Manhattan. Millions were likely forced to relive their respective shame rooms before the New Avengers assembled to help Bob fight back against his depression and loneliness.

It's a great ending, though many fans have questioned why Thunderbolts* didn't reference New York City being under martial law following the events of Daredevil: Born Again. However, that can likely be put down to Marvel Studios setting out to make its movies feel less like "homework."

Neither Daredevil nor Spider-Man's reactions to The Void are shown, and Thunderbolts* writer Eric Pearson shared his take on that in an interview with Screen Rant

"I'm going to take the fifth on that one," he started. "I haven't looked at the map closely enough of where it went. I'm not sure if it went to Bleecker Street yet. But I also think that the time of it is happening so much faster than you expect."

"That expansion and retraction of time is different. As we say in Thor: Ragnarok, 'Time works real different around here.' When you're in the Void Space, who knows how long it's been? Maybe it's been one second," Pearson revealed, delivering a pretty good explanation, to be fair. 

Elsewhere in the interview, the writer confirmed that Bucky Barnes was going to be portrayed as a "lobbyist" in his version of the script, with the former Winter Soldier "used by politicians to just stand there and propagandize Avenger stuff."

The plan from there was to reveal he was secretly undercover and working with Senator Gary. Based on Pearson's comments, it sounds like Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige decided Bucky should briefly become a Congressman, starting with his cameo in Captain America: Brave New World

Pearson also confirmed that an earlier draft spent much more time in Vault Level 5 and detailed some fun-sounding Thunderbolts* deleted scenes. 

"There were just a few more obstacles; it was set up a little bit more like a team building weekend, when corporations go and do trust falls and rope courses. It just took a little bit longer to get out there, and they didn't really fully get out until probably the end of Act 2."

"A bit of a directive I was given when I pitched the project was, 'It's got to feel smaller, more contained, more grounded.' I threw the Die Hard word out there, which is always a dangerous pitch to make. But it was like, 'Let's keep it contained, and then our third act will be somewhere else.' And then it became much more of like, 'Let's get them out by the midpoint.'"

"When Jake came on, he wanted to bring that moment up a little bit more and have a couple of road-trippy moments. There was a point where the road trip was way too long as well. There was one version where they drove to take cover at a house, and it was the morning after some high school kid had thrown a party. He was just there, very hungover, and was kind of their buddy for a second because he had trashed his house and was just waiting to get in trouble."

"That was where Bucky intercepted them at that point. It was completely unnecessary because, at that point in the movie, you really want to gain momentum. And we were sitting and hanging out with this random kid for 5 pages."

It's always interesting to hear what might have been. If you're wondering why Pearson appears to be in the dark about certain changes and creative decisions, it's because he moved on to The Fantastic Four: First Steps, with Joanna Calo taking a pass at the script before shooting started.

Thunderbolts* is now playing in theaters.

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TheVisionary25
TheVisionary25 - 5/6/2025, 7:11 AM
I mean , The Void starts to envelop NYC in darkness fairly quickly So it makes sense that both Spidey & DD might not be able to get there in time…

Plus once they are in the Void , they are likely dealing with their own trauma rooms which could have been interesting to see but ultimately it’s not there movie so having either or both show up in the third act would be superfluous and the same people complaining about the lack of them would then have issues with fan service etc.

In regards to Bucky , congressman seemed like the better route to go then lobbyist since there were no Avengers at the time to propagandize imo even if I wish the explored him being the former a bit more tbh.
Vigor
Vigor - 5/6/2025, 9:02 AM
@TheVisionary25 - agreed. And thank you for further opening up the depiction of the void to me. It didn't click that they were trauma rooms. Wow. Such a well designed character

Yeah bucky being a lobbyist, sounds like a cheerleader to me. Feminine energy that i don't see bucky as having. He's more of a take the situation by the reins. A congressman fits much much better. I also loved how he couldn't help but get hus hands dirty. Mirrors Matt Murdock's issue of being a lawyer to fight crime or taking it on directly as Daredevil
TheVisionary25
TheVisionary25 - 5/6/2025, 9:15 AM
@Vigor - yeah

While I would have liked seeing him trying to adjust to that life instead of skipping to the end , I’m glad we got a bit of that atleast and how he wasn’t really comfortable in that position in the interview we saw him give aswell as how he didn’t approve some of Congress method etc.
Vigor
Vigor - 5/6/2025, 7:36 AM
Yes the vault was about to over stay its welcome. Then they got out
TheVisionary25
TheVisionary25 - 5/6/2025, 7:58 AM
@Vigor - yeah , I’m glad they got out when they did though I wouldn’t have minded an extra 5 mins or so in there to further develop Yelena & Bobs dynamic
dragon316
dragon316 - 5/6/2025, 7:59 AM
Where was street level heros in first avengers movie ?
slickrickdesigns
slickrickdesigns - 5/6/2025, 8:50 AM
@dragon316 - I’m surprised they haven’t taken any time to have some flashback or a third person tell a story of one of the street level heroes saving them off screen during the Chittari invasion.

The closest thing we got to that was Kate Bishop telling the story of watching Hawkeye jump from the building during the events of the avengers.
ntwrk
ntwrk - 5/6/2025, 9:41 AM
@dragon316 - mostly working out rights issues.
slickrickdesigns
slickrickdesigns - 5/6/2025, 8:46 AM
I was a bit confused how we didn’t see one cameo hero in New York as well. Could’ve been anyone. Wong was in so many movies as a cameo after endgame, it would’ve made sense to see someone like him get sucked into the void.
ntwrk
ntwrk - 5/6/2025, 9:39 AM
I don't think the head of the CIA is going to be overly concerned about the New York Mayor's Martial Law, and the Void happened very fast so not a great deal of time to react to it. They only rocked up to New York in the final act. If they'd showed up sooner, or Bob hadn't gone evil shadow god so quickly, maybe the vigilante task force would show up after their assault on the tower. Even then, CIA probably superseding some local mob squad. Also, you'd potentially alienate your audience who hadn't watched it. ALSO, it might have happened before that, and Born Again perhaps took place within that 14 month period, where these guys aren't vigilantes, they're government sponsored. So why didn't it get mentioned in Daredevil? Let's save you an article. Weird shit happens in the MCU all the time. Let's not worry about the 20 minutes of widespread liminal space trauma that New York endured. I mean [frick] did anyone not see that eyeball monster three years ago? Or the alien invasion back in 2012? Or worst of all, the time the sky opened up to reveal a teaser of Sony's entire rota of Spiderman adjacent projects?
TGDestroyer
TGDestroyer - 5/6/2025, 9:43 AM
It would have been better imo to go the lobbyist route. He could have had the same experience Steve had in FA to an extent before he rallies the "New Avengers".

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