Following the death of Natasha Romanoff in Avengers: Endgame, many fans are hoping that Florence Pugh's Yelena Belova will ultimately become the Marvel Cinematic Universe's new Black Widow. Of course, if she heads down the same villainous route as her comic book counterpart in the upcoming Black Widow movie, that's probably going to be off the table.
Whatever the future may hold in store for Yelena, she's clearly going to be a complex addition to this shared world. In the Black Widow: The Official Movie Special Book (which is now on sale from Titan Books), Pugh shed some light on her character's relationship with both Red Guardian and Dreykov.
"Yelena's relationship with both of those parents (Alexei and Melina) is full of sadness because she saw them as her real family. David Harbour and I agreed that Yelena was definitely Alexei's little girl, his little special thing," the actress explains. "And they separated when she was still a young child, and she gets sent back to the Red Room not really knowing what the hell is going on."
"So we tried to have that aggression under the surface, specifically with him. They're kind of hot-headed, and David and I had a lot of fun having our characters not quite know how to say that they really love each other," Pugh continues. "He's a washed-up old star that talks about the good ol' days far more than he talks about fathering these two girls."
As for Dreykov, the man in charge of the Red Room, she adds: "It's the same as any of the Widows, including Natasha Romanoff. They all trained under his eye at the Red Room. They've all had the same training. They've all had the same attention, which is near to none."
So, there will be a lot of daddy issues in Black Widow, though that probably should have been obvious after Avengers: Endgame made a point of emphasising that Natasha never knew her father's name.
What are you most excited to see from Yelena Belova in this movie next May?