Hawkeye: Florence Pugh’s Return, Thunderbolts Connection May Have Been Spoiled in New Promo

We’re officially halfway through Marvel Studios’ Hawkeye, and there’s still a lot of ground for the Disney+ series to cover. Among that is the Marvel Cinematic Universe return of Black Widow‘s Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), who was confirmed to be appearing in the series late last year. As it stands, we haven’t officially seen what Yelena’s cameo in the series will look like — but a newly-released promo could very well provide the answer. The promo, which was released on Thursday, shows a masked figure in tactical gear and green goggles, prompting Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld) to ask who it is. While it’s still too early to tell, there’s a chance that it could be Yelena, in a costume not unlike the one she wore when she became a Super-Adaptoid in the comics.

In the comics, Yelena was severely injured in the pages of New Avengers, leading to AIM offering to turn her body into an Adaptoid. Yelena then used her abilities to crash the wedding of Luke Cage and Jessica Jones, and ultimately went on a futile mission to kill Spider-Woman. When she didn’t succeed, it appeared as if Yelena had died, but it was later revealed that she had been kept in stasis in Avengers Tower, and was reactivated by the Thunderbolts.

While it’s safe to assume Yelena’s Hawkeye appearance won’t get nearly as dark, it is interesting to see this Adaptoid-inspired costume, and whether or not it could belong to her. The post-credits scene of Black Widow revealed that Yelena was being sent to kill Clint Barton (Jeremy Renner) by Valentina (Julie Louis-Dreyfus) and her mysterious team. The connection to Thunderbolts in the comics — as well as recent rumors — could possibly indicate that we’re building up to that group in the MCU. 

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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