Florence Pugh's Black Widow Will Reportedly Lead Marvel Studios' 'Thunderbolts'

In a recent appearance on The Town, Justin Kroll from Deadline hinted that Yelena Belova is expected to lead the MCU antihero team in the upcoming Thunderbolts movie. “[Florence Pugh] has got the Marvel superhero that’s already got a spin-off,” said Kroll. “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.”

Pugh first appeared as Yelena Belova in Black Widow (2021), taking place prior to Avengers: Endgame and is the adopted younger sister of Scarlett Johansson‘s Natasha Romanoff. After Endgame, Belova essentially became the MCU’s next Black Widow and was last seen in the 2021 Disney+ series, Hawkeye.

Thunderbolts is set to premiere in theaters July 26, 2024 to close out Phase 5 of the MCU. In the meantime, Pugh is set to appear as Princess Irulan in Dune: Part Two premiering on November 17, 2023.

Elsewhere in entertainment, Arcane wins Emmy Award for best-animated program.