We first met Florence Pugh's Yelena Belova in 2021's Black Widow, a movie that, despite not being released in theaters, established the character as a firm fan favourite. Hawkeye helped with that, and Thunderbolts* cemented her role as the MCU's new Black Widow.
As co-leader of the New Avengers alongside Sebastian Stan's Bucky Barnes, Yelena is expected to be a major player in Avengers: Doomsday (a recent rumour claimed to shed new light on what she'll be getting up to in the movie).
Now, concept artist Ji Hye Lee has shared her alternate designs for Yelena's suit in Thunderbolts*. A few double down on the Black Widow motif, while others seem a little more casual or pay homage to what she donned in Black Widow.
Yelena will get another updated costume in Avengers: Doomsday, and we caught our first glimpse at her New Avengers uniform in Thunderbolts*'s post-credits scene.
"During the making of this movie, I had one of the most wonderful, bizarre realisations where the lesson that this film was trying to teach us was something that I was learning from as we were shooting the movie," Pugh recently told Glamour. "And it was really wonderful to be taking inspiration from the art that we were creating."
"And allowing myself, I suppose, the graciousness that Yelena allows herself of actually accepting that she needs help and accepting that she needs to allow others to care for her, which is something that I find very, very hard," she continued. "I like being the carer and I like being the person that is there for everybody."
"And I think during that movie it was a real nice wake-up call of actually going, 'It's okay,' and it's okay to accept that you're not [feeling] great and it's okay to accept that you're feeling quite weak and it's okay to ask for help and it's okay for people to help you," Pugh added. "I had a nice mirrored realisation of the work that I was creating was the exact thing that I needed to teach myself."
Pugh has quite easily been one of Marvel Studios' best acquisitions during the Multiverse Saga, and comments like the ones above make it clear that she's fully invested in bringing this character to life on screen for the foreseeable future.
You can see Lee's alternate takes on Yelena's Thunderbolts* costume in the Instagram gallery below.
In Thunderbolts*, Marvel Studios assembles an unconventional team of antiheroes - Yelena Belova, Bucky Barnes, Red Guardian, Ghost, Taskmaster and John Walker. After finding themselves ensnared in a death trap set by Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, these disillusioned castoffs must embark on a dangerous mission that will force them to confront the darkest corners of their pasts.
Will this dysfunctional group tear themselves apart, or find redemption and unite as something much more before it’s too late?
"Thunderbolts* redefines superhero storytelling to deliver a moving and powerful story that does for the 'Multiverse Saga' what The Avengers did for the 'Infinity Saga' in 2012," we said in our review. "These heroes have earned their place on a Wheaties box."
The cast of Thunderbolts* will be led by Florence Pugh as Yelena Boleva, Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes, David Harbour as Red Guardian, Wyatt Russell as U.S. Agent, Hannah John-Kamen as Ghost, Olga Kurylenko as Taskmaster, Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, and Lewis Pullman as "Bob."
Written by Eric Pearson, Lee Sung Jin, and Joanna Calo, and directed by Jake Schreier, Thunderbolts* is now playing in theaters.