A Marvel Actor's Overlooked 2025 Sci-Fi Movie Is A Gem Waiting To Be Discovered On Hulu

You might remember Aaron (Ross Marquand) as one of the more morally sound characters in AMC's "The Walking Dead." Although the apocalypse changed Aaron into a hardened survivalist, his sincere efforts at diplomacy have endeared us to his character. Apart from bringing great nuance to this role, Marquand also portrayed and voiced two characters in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Replacing Hugo Weaving, Marquand played Red Skull in both "Avengers: Infinity War" and "Avengers: Endgame;" he also embodied a version of Ultron in "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness." The actor voiced both characters in "What If...?," Marvel's alternate-timeline anthology series that brought novel ideas to life.

Marquand belts out a memorable performance in Peter Cilella's directorial debut, "Descendent," which is currently streaming on Hulu. If you've never heard of this 2025 sci-fi thriller, it's time to immerse yourself in this gem of a movie produced by filmmaking duo Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead (who made horror standouts like "Resolution" and "The Endless" and directed the wildest episodes of "Moon Knight"). In "Descendent," Marquand plays Sean Bruner, a school security guard trying his best to get another job after his wife, Andrea (Sarah Bolger), gets pregnant. Although Sean experiences the anxieties of impending fatherhood, his relationship with Andrea is fulfilling and loving.

This, however, changes once Sean sees a mysterious beam of light during a night shift and wakes up with an inexplicable injury. Is this a stress-induced accident, or are his ramblings about alien abductions true? "Descendent" grapples with these questions while exploring Sean's deteriorating relationship with Andrea and what his newfound fears mean with regard to his unborn child. Cilella subverts expectations at every turn, honing his debut into a refreshing, visually stunning genre entry.

Spoilers for "Descendent" follow.

Sean develops a compulsive urge to draw unsettling scenes related to extraterrestrial life after his injury. Some of these drawings are disturbing, which propels him to hide them from Andrea, who is already stressed because of her pregnancy. Although Sean doesn't know what these images mean, he gets paranoid about protecting his family and starts fulfilling duties associated with traditional masculinity. "Descendent" dissects these expectations, as Sean's first instinct is to buy a gun — a vehicle for violence that is often associated with a masculine protective figure. While such a measure might make sense from a practical standpoint, Sean doesn't know who or what might endanger his family, or why he is being asked to play a more aggressive role.

While Cilella uses familiar imagery that evokes tropes of alien abduction and related conspiracies, the film isn't interested in meeting the expectations it builds up through Sean's hallucinations. The sensationalism of such a mystery is contrasted with the quiet character study that unfolds throughout the film, in which Sean's predicament becomes an exploration of masculinity. As we race through sequences of aliens pretending to be humans and flashes of what seems to be a spaceship, it becomes clear that "Descendent" is a tense psychological experience rather than a paint-by-the-numbers adventure.

Marquand is brilliant as Sean. We want to trust him whenever he's distressed, but his performance leverages ambiguity to cast doubt on his perspective. There's more to Sean than he lets on, and part of the fun is to uncover what makes such a compelling character tick. 

In the end, "Descendent" is a well-crafted thriller that examines the lingering effects of trauma and how it can sully the most beautiful experiences in our lives.