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.