‘Thunderbolts’: Florence Pugh’s Yelena Belova Reportedly Set To Lead Marvel Anti-Hero Team

Marvel has seemingly been slowly sowing the seeds of an anti-heroes film—much of that planted in “The Falcon And The Winter Solider”— and they’ve wasted no time bringing that to fruition. On the horizon is a “Thunderbolts” movie that will be helmed by Jake Schreier (“Robot & Frank”) with a prime summer release date on July 26, 2024. Based on a anti-heroes/bad guys team from the comics, the expectation is we’ll see a mix of heroes and villains thrown together into a new group that has some sort of U.S. government oversight—the timing is perfect, given that the Avengers technically don’t exist and powers that be clearly need some kind of super-powered force to step in for their absence.

While it had been long assumed that Florence Pugh’s Yelena Belova from “Black Widow” and the “Hawkeye” series would be part of the film’s team roster, a new tidbit shared on The Town podcast by Deadline reporter Justin Kroll seemingly confirms that Yelena will be the film’s lead. 

READ MORE: Marvel’s Phase 5 Films Will End With ‘Captain America: New World Order’ & ‘Thunderbolts’ [Comic-Con]

“[Florence Pugh] has got the Marvel superhero that’s already got a spin-off. Upcoming for her, actually, on that character is this ‘Thunderbolts’ film, which is basically Marvel’s ‘Suicide Squad,’” he explained. “Hopefully, it has better results. But the concept is it’d be her leading the team.” While it’s unclear if they’re officially on the team, Kroll also mentions Wyatt Russell’s U.S. Agent and Daniel Bruhl’s Baron Zemo, but it’s not clear if that’s speculation.

It’s still fuzzy how the MCU incarnation of Thunderbolts will work compared to its comic book counterpart. However, apart from the aforementioned trio above, plenty of candidates could be part of the film and sequels, including Olga Kurylenko’s Taskmaster, Sam Rockwell’s Justin Hammer, Tim Roth’s Abomination, Jameela Jamil’s Titania, Hannah John-Kamen’s Ghost. Given that much of this team’s seeds started in ‘Falcon and Winter Solider,’ it seems more than plausible that pulling the strings behind this team could be actors and characters like Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ Valentina Allegra de Fontaine and Emily VanCamp as Sharon Carter, aka the Powerbrokeer.

In the comics, other members have consisted of Bucky Barnes, Hawkeye, Deadpool, The Punisher, Elektra, Agent Venom, and Thunderbolt Ross’ Red Hulk. Following the recent death of actor William Hurt, who played Ross, it’s less likely Red Hulk will automatically have a spot. 

We’ll likely learn more about the film in the coming months, and we’ll keep our fingers crossed that Kevin Feige will touch upon the character lineup at the upcoming D23 Expo presentation. Pugh is currently shooting Denis Villeneuve’s “Dune: Part Two” in Budapest as the British actress plays Princess Irulan in the sequel.

You can listen to that podcast episode below.