Thunderbolts* initially had John Walker as the villain

In an earlier draft of the Thunderbolts* (or The New Avengers) script, the film had a very different villain to Sentry or The Void. Instead, it would have had John Walker AKA US Agent step in as the antagonist.

According to writer Eric Pearson, who was speaking with Comicbook.com, Walker would have been similar to Thaddeus Ross in Captain America: Brave New World, as his super soldier serum would have made him become a hulk bomb.

"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 said. "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."

Pearson found that Walker's villain arc simply didn't create the same emotional impact that he wanted, and so he made use of Sentry and The Void, as they symbolised pure good and pure evil. "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?' That's all our characters' journeys lumped into one villain, one person, who can be their antagonist. It gave everything we wanted," he explained.

Thunderbolts* is out now in theatres.