Hawkeye Directors Address the Return and Future of Black Widow Star Florence Pugh

Marvel Studios' Hawkeye has been surprising its viewers at practically every turn, taking the story of Clint Barton (Jeremy Renner) and Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld) into some interesting territory. One of the most surprising reveals of the series has been the return of Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), who made her debut in Marvel's Black Widow film earlier this year, and is returning to exact her revenge on Clint. Hawkeye directors Bert and Bertie recently spoke about the return of Yelena, and joked that her brief return in the end of Hawkeye Episode 4 might be definitive, even though a recently-released promo already confirms that isn't the case.

"Having Marvel secrets is really fun," Bert revealed to The Hollywood Reporter. "If it's something we want to keep secret from the fans, it means they're really going to enjoy it, and the reveal of the character has already got people really excited. I genuinely can't remember if that character comes back, but maybe?"

"She jumps off a roof and never appears again," Bertie joked with a laugh.

"Yeah, you already know the answer to that," Bert added.

Pugh's role in Hawkeye was first confirmed last year, and as the post-credits scene of Black Widow revealed, Yelena was sent to kill Clint Barton (Jeremy Renner) by Valentina (Julie Louis-Dreyfus) and her mysterious team. 

"Watching her decision-making and being really brave with the character not only was inspiring, but also just a lot of fun," Bert revealed in a recent interview with Entertainment Tonight, before joking, "What's great about her is she's batsh-t crazy. She's like us!"

"To bring her story into this was such a dream come true," Bert said elsewhere in the interview. 

"Being a fan of Florence and what she had done with Yelena's character, [it] was very exciting," Bertie echoed.

In Hawkeye, while in New York City post-Blip, Clint Barton must work together with the young archer Kate Bishop to confront enemies from his past as Ronin in order to get back to his family in time for Christmas. The series also stars Vera Farmiga as Eleanor Bishop, Fra Fee as The Clown, Tony Dalton as Swordsman, Alaqua Cox as Echo, and Zahn McClarnon as William Lopez.

New episodes of Hawkeye debut on Wednesdays exclusively on Disney+. If you haven't signed up for Disney+ yet, you can try it out here.

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