Yelena Belova is officially back! She hasn’t been away from the screen for that long, having made her Marvel Cinematic Universe debut earlier this year in Black Widow, but fans have been anxiously awaiting her return nonetheless. The Black Widow post-credits scene revealed that Yelena would be hunting down Clint Barton, believing he was responsible for Natasha’s death, and confirming to Marvel fans that she’d have a role in Hawkeye. Finally, in the show’s fourth episode, Yelena got in on the action.
Videos by ComicBook.com
The first three episodes of Yelena were without any mention of Florence Pugh’s popular Marvel character, as was most of episode four. In the final minutes, however, Yelena took the fight to Clint. The preview of the episode showed a masked figure that many assumed would be Yelena, and now a new post-episode promo shows off the character underneath the mask. Take a look!
Yelena’s interaction with Clint and Kate didn’t last long, and it’s not yet clear whether she’ll be an antagonist in the Hawkeye story or eventually figure things out with Clint. What we do know is that Yelena and Kate definitely have more of a story together going forward.
“So much of Hawkeye is seeing the world through the characters’ point of view of it. So if we look at the end of [Episode 4], we are with Kate Bishop as she’s seeing this person, who she has no concept of who she is, actually, and how she’s going to fit into the story,” Bertie, one half of Hawkeye directing duo Bert and Bertie, told . “But there’s this connection, and you can see and feel the presence of this new character. It’s actually a balance between what the audience feels about this character and what Kate’s feeling that makes that ending so special.”
“When you’re directing actresses like Florence and Hailee, they bring so much to it,” added Bert. “There was this immediate natural chemistry between them, which — I can’t say anything else. But you know, when they give you that, it’s this gift, and all you want to do is take care of it and unwrap it slowly.”
There are still two more episodes of Hawkeye‘s first season remaining, so there is still a lot more story left to tell. We’ll likely learn a lot more about Yelena’s part in the tale in the coming weeks.
Were you glad to see Yelena make her Hawkeye debut? Let us know in the comments!
