- Florence Pugh plays Yelena Belova in upcoming MCU film Thunderbolts*
- She says her character is “completely different” to what fans might assume
- Thunderbolts* hits theaters in May
Florence Pugh says her Thunderbolts* character, Yelena Belova, has been changed by the multiple traumas she has experienced over the years.
For those who haven’t been following the MCU too closely recently, Belova first appeared in Black Widow – the film that explained more about Natasha Romanov’s history. She was trained in the Red Room as a Black Widow and became a teenage assassin and adopted sister of Romanov – better known as Black Widow.
In Black Widow, Belova, along with Romanov, Alexei Shoshakov and Melina Vostokoff stop General Dreykov after he reactivates the Black Widow programme.
But since the events in Black Widow, Belova has suffered several traumas. Not only was she a victim of ‘the blip’ – where Thanos erased half of humanity, including her, something that took five years to undo – she then found out that her adoptive sister had died.
The loss of Black Widow was addressed in the Disney+ series Hawkeye, where she was tasked with killing Clint Barton – who was falsely blamed in the series for Romanov’s death – until she discovers the truth behind her death.
Completely different person
Understandably, these events have made a lasting impression on Belova, as Pugh explains in an interview with Empire. Pugh says Belova is a changed person. “She’s a completely different person to the person that you’d assume she would be,” she said, cryptically.
“She’s coming out of a few years of quite traumatic events. Where does that leave a person?”
Where it leaves her – and how she ends up in the Thunderbolts* will be explained in the upcoming movie. The Thunderbolts*, to go by Marvel’s official synopsis, are: “A group of antiheroes [who] goes on missions for the government.”
Who are the Thunderbolts*
Thunderbolts* focuses on a loose team brought together to do the US government’s dirty work. Presumably action and misadventure follow. You can find out everything we know about Thunderbolts* here.
If you’re wondering, there is a meaning behind the asterisk after Thunderbolts*. This has been the subject of much speculation since the name of the movie was confirmed, but the reason appears to have finally been revealed – and it isn’t the most mentioned reason on social media.
You can find out how Belova is – and the effect events have had on her – in Thunderbolts*, which arrives in theaters on May 2.
