According to reports, Florence Pugh’s Yelena Belova will lead the Thunderbolts in Marvel Studio’s upcoming movie of the same name.
Yelena was first introduced in Black Widow as the de facto successor to Natasha Romanoff aka Black Widow. She later featured in the Disney+ series, Hawkeye, where she had a face-off with Jeremy Renner’s Hawkeye. She met Contessa Valentina Allegra de la Fontaine in the post-credits scene of Black Widow, after which she worked with her in Hawkeye.
There was speculation that Valentina was secretly building a dark mirror for the Avengers. Kevin Feige, the president of Marvel Studios, confirmed the suspicions when he officially announced The Thunderbolts as a movie at San Diego Comic-Con this year. The Thunderbolts will wrap up Phase 5 of the MCU.
In the Marvel comics, the Thunderbolts is a group of reformed supervillains. Although Marvel Studios has not officially announced the cast for their upcoming project, we may have some idea about the members of this group.
In an appearance on The Town Podcast, Deadline writer Justin Kroll said Yelena Belova is expected to lead MCU’s Thunderbolts in the upcoming movie. He described the Thunderbolts as a group of anti-heroes who are neither good nor bad. According to Kroll, other members of this team of anti-heroes will include Wyatt Russell’s John Walker aka US Agent and Daniel Bruhl’s Zemo.
However, it is unclear whether all of this is simply speculation on Kroll’s part, considering Marvel Studios has not made any official announcement about the same. Read Kroll’s statement below.
[Florence Pugh] has got the Marvel superhero that’s already got a spinoff. Upcoming for her, actually, on that character is this Thunderbolts film, which is basically Marvel’s Suicide Squad. Hopefully, it has better results. But the concept is it’d be her leading the team of like Wyatt Russell’s [John Walker], Daniel Bruhl’s [Zemo], those anti-heroes that aren’t exactly good but aren’t exactly bad. So there’s that. And people seem to like the Yelena character.
Kroll
Making Yelena the leader of the Thunderbolts would be a great decision, as she is the character that is closest to a traditional hero in terms of morality. Moreover, Marvel would also want to capitalize on Florence Pugh’s star power.
After she was cast as Yelena back in 2019, she received an Academy Award nomination for Little Women and is all set to star in big projects such as Don’t Worry Darling, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, Oppenheimer, and Dune: Part II.
Yelena becoming the leader will also help Marvel wrap up abandoned plotlines from Black Widow, including the status of characters like Red Guardian, Taskmaster, and Melina Voskotova.
Other than Yelena, US Agent, and Zemo, there are many other villains in the MCU, such as Abomination, Agatha Harkness, and Ghost, who can be a part of the Thunderbolts and get their redemption arc.
Hopefully, Marvel Studios will confirm the cast of The Thunderbolts soon.
About Thunderbolts
Thunderbolts is an upcoming superhero-fantasy movie set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige officially announced Thunderbolts as a movie at the San Diego Comic-Con.
The Thunderbolts are a fictional antihero team appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The group consists primarily of reformed supervillains, similar to the Suicide Squad.
The film will be based on this group, consisting of Wyatt Russell’s John Walker, a.k.a US Agent, Florence Pugh’s Yelena, and Daniel Bruhl’s Zemo. It is set to release on May 2, 2025 and will wrap up Phase 5 of the MCU.
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