Thunderbolts: Florence Pugh's Yelena Belova Rumored to Lead Marvel Team

09/02/2022 08:13 pm EDT

The future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is getting brighter and brighter. The studio recently announced that a film focusing on their Thunderbolts comic books was in development and will hit theaters on July 26, 2023. Thunderbolts is a Suicide Squad type project that is rumored to feature John Walker / U.S. Agent (Wyatt Russell), Baron Zemo (Daniel Bruhl), Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko), Abomination (Tim Roth), The Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan), and Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen). During a new episode of Matthew Belloni's The Town podcast, Deadline's Justin Kroll Yelena Belova will lead the team in the film. The report even reveals that it's technically Pugh's spin-off from Black Widow.

"[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. Hopefully, it has better results. But the concept is it'd be her leading the team of like Wyatt Russell's [John Walker], Daniel Bruhl's [Zemo], those anti-heroes that aren't exactly good but aren't exactly bad. So there's that. And people seem to like the Yelena character."

Marvel Studios unveiled their plans for the next three years with two new Avengers movies being announced. Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and Avengers: Secret Wars will both make their way into theaters in 2025. This may seem like it's pretty far away, but Marvel is known for teasing their upcoming films with post-credit scenes. But, it seems like they might be doing it differently this time around. During a new interview with ComicBook.com, Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige reveals how the post-credits scenes could build towards the next two Avengers films.

"The truth is, all of the tags are never just about the future. There are tags that are eating shwarma, Captain America saying you know you gotta learn patience, sometimes, you know, you wait for something that's not worth it. So they are always fun for us," Feige told us. "We don't want everything to feel the same. So some of the tags will connect and some of them won't. Some of the films and shows will connect; some of them won't. I think it's just as important that we can have standalone introductory stories like Ms. Marvel, like Moon Knight, in addition to things that interconnect and build towards the larger story. A lot of what we've been doing has been building to this larger story, obviously with The Kang Dynasty and the Multiverse Saga, and now I think people will, I hope, come along for the ride. Both where it's you're on the express train to the finale, also when it's fun, as many of our Phase 1, 2 and 3 films were."

The most recent Marvel Studios film to be released was Thor: Love and Thunder. The film is being directed by Taika Waititi and will star Chris Hemsworth as the titular character, Tessa Thompson as Valkyrie, Natalie Portman as Jane Foster/Mighty Thor, Russell Crowe as Zeus, Jaimie Alexander as Lady Sif, Chris Pratt as Peter Quill/Star Lord, Sean Gunn as Kraglin, Dave Bautista as Drax the Destroyer, Karen Gillan as Nebula and Christian Bale as Gorr the God Butcher. In addition to directing, Waititi will also be reprising his role as Korg. The film is exclusively in theaters now!

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