In Black Widow's post-credits scene, Yelena Belova meets with Valentina Allegra de Fontaine at Natasha Romanoff's graveside and is tasked with taking out the man responsible for her sister's death: Clint Barton. It was confirmed last year that Florence Pugh would return in Hawkeye, though we obviously didn't know at the time that she'd be gunning for the Avenger.
Talking to Variety, Pugh revealed that the stringer was shot during the winter of 2019, shortly before the COVID-19 pandemic halted productions around the globe.
"I was doing scenes again with Scarlett, and being strapped to her on various machines, and us giggling again," she recalled. "And then the following week, I was at her grave! It was quite shocking to fast-forward that quickly. But wonderful to have only seen Scarlett the week previous. I think it would have been sadder if it had been many, many months later."
Revealing that she didn't know there was going to be a post-credits scene featuring Yelena, Pugh went on to share some insight into where we find the character. "She’s going to continue what she’s good at, and despite her sister not being there, she’s back working. If you look at her costume, and you look at the way that she’s dressed herself, it shows someone that’s flourishing."
"So to me, it was just really wonderful to kind of jump ahead and see she has been surviving," Pugh said before commenting on Yelena's mission to find Hawkeye and take him out. "But, of course, it sets up a whole different challenge — which is Natasha’s fighting partner." She added: "There’s always talks, but I didn’t ever really imagine that it would continue quite so quickly."
Something tells us that Yelena will probably come to her senses and realise that Natasha's demise wasn't Clint's fault. Alternatively, there's always a chance she'll become a full-blown villain in Hawkeye, especially if Marvel Studios is planning to have "Val" assemble her own team of Dark Avengers in the MCU.
Are you excited for Yelena's Phase 4 future post-Black Widow?