MCU: Florence Pugh To Lead Marvel Movie?

Florence Pugh’s character Yelena Belova is reportedly going to lead the Marvel Studio's version of  Thunderbolts.

In the latest episode of Matthew Belloni's The Town podcast, Deadline's Justin Kroll revealed that Florence Pugh's Yelena Belova is set to lead the MCU's Thunderbolts.

Pugh’s character first appeared in “Black Widow” as Yelena Belova which was introduced as the de facto successor to Natasha Romanoff’s Black Widow in the MCU. The movie broke out with audiences and critics.

The character later returned in Disney+'s “Hawkeye”, which aired five months after “Black Widow” was released. The popular episode saw her face off against Jeremy Renner’s titular Avenger.

Kevin Feige confirmed at Comic-Con 2022 that Phase 5 will conclude with a different kind of team-up movie – the currently somewhat-mysterious Thunderbolts, with Black Widow's Eric Pearson working on a script, and Paper Towns and Robot & Frank director Jake Schreier (who also used to be part of the Waverly Films collective with Spider-Man’s Jon Watts) on board.

Marvel’s Thunderbolts will be similar to DC Comics’ “Suicide Squad”. A group of villains – or at least anti-heroes – brought together by third-party schemers in a possibly ill-advised attempt to turn them into a force for good.