Black Widow: Florence Pugh's Former Co-Star Rumored to Have Passed on Yelena Role First

Florence Pugh made her Marvel Cinematic Universe debut as Yelena Belova in Black Widow in 2021, but it was the year 2019 that saw her career really take off. She starred in Fighting with My Family and Midsommar that year in addition to Little Women, which earned her an Academy Award nomination. In Greta Gerwig's adaptation, Pugh played Amy, the youngest of the March sisters, alongside Saoirse Ronan's Jo March. Recently, a new rumor suggested Ronan was originally approached to play Natasha Romanoff's (Scarlett Johansson) sister in the MCU. Deadline reporter Justin Kroll appeared on The Town with Matthew Belloni podcast and claimed to have the inside scoop on Ronan's Marvel history.

"The Saoirse thing, I've heard stuff she's passed on. She passed on Florence's role in Black Widow, the sister. Marvel has not been her cup of tea, and she was not interested," Kroll shared.

What Is Florence Pugh's Next Marvel Project? 

Pugh is signed on to return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe in the film Thunderbolts. It was recently reported that Pugh will be getting an "eight-figure" payday in her salary for multiple upcoming Marvel films. The movie started pre-production but shut down in May due to the WGA strike. The film is expected to start production in March or April of this year. 

Thunderbolts will also feature Wyatt Russell (John Walker/US Agent), Hannah John-Kamen (Ava/Ghost), Red Guardian (David Harbour), Julia Louis-Dreyfuss (Valentina Allegra de Fontaine), Sebastian Stan (Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier), and Olga Kurylenko (Taskmaster). 

It was previously announced that Star Wars and Indiana Jones legend, Harrison Ford, has been cast as Thaddeus Ross and will first be appearing in Captain America: Brave New World. The role was originally played by William Hurt who sadly passed away in 2022. Jake Schreier (Paper Towns) is confirmed to be directing Thunderbolts while Eric Pearson (Black Widow) is signed on to write the script. Thunderbolts is expected to mark the end of Marvel's Phase 5.

"I just made a joke about [how] it's like Dungeons and Dragons, where you meet in a tavern and it's like there's a dwarf drinking a beer and then there's like an elvish figure over there, we all come together and then there's this ghost... it's not gonna happen like that, I don't think," David Harbour told ComicBook.com in a 2022 interview when asked about Thunderbolts. "But I think that's one of the mysteries of the movie is what is their relationship, and as you say, there is a lot of exciting things as you wrap up the next phase in terms of sort of what their part of the whole universe is in this random, chaotic way. So, you know, we can't say too much at this point, but they're an exciting introduction of this team together again, that's going to be a lot of fun."

The movie was also supposed to feature Steven Yeun, but it was announced this week that he had to exit the project due to scheduling conflicts.

Stay tuned for more updates about Thunderbolts.