There have been many, many rumors and alleged leaks surrounding Spider-Man: Brand New Day, and a whole lot of them have eventually been officially confirmed. Now, we can add another one to that list.
Past insider reports that characters like the Punisher would team up with Spider-Man and Peter would be fighting Savage Hulk were eventually proven true by the trailers. But there’s one other character rumored that Kevin Feige has just confirmed at an event in China who will appear in Brand New Day, one from Doomsday, and an increasingly large number of films in the MCU. That would be Florence Pugh’s Yelena Belova:
“If you’re a fan of Yelena, wait until Avengers: Doomsday, Yelena plays a big part in that. But if you don’t want to wait until then, you might see Yelena a little bit sooner in the movies,” Feige said at a recent event in China next to a cosplayer dressed as Florence Pugh’s former Russian spy.
The only Marvel movie coming out before Doomsday, of course, is Spider-Man: Brand New Day, so now that rumor has been confirmed, despite Yelena never being seen in the trailers. In Doomsday, Yelena has brought her “New Avengers” team of misfits over from the Thunderbolts movie to this one, and Feige is promising a big part for her. Though her having a big part in Spider-Man seems somewhat unlikely, given the crowded cast.
There was an odd rumor going around about a scene where she and Peter see each other naked, or at least she sees Peter naked, which sounds bizarre. But again, so many leaks have panned out from this movie, it’s more likely than not some version of that will happen. That probably has something to do with Peter waking up in weird situations with his organic spider-mutations happening. Though why Yelena is in the movie at all is unclear. Hulk, Punisher and Spider-Man are not appearing in Doomsday (at least not officially).
Elevating Yelena in the MCU to this degree has been interesting. She will soon appear across five different projects: Black Widow (her introduction as Natalia’s sister), a cameo in Hawkeye, leading Thunderbolts, whatever is happening in Brand New Day and then a big role in Doomsday, according to Feige. For all we know, she makes it to Secret Wars as well.
This says two things to me: One, Marvel knows they’ve got a real talent in the MCU with Florence Pugh, who is a great, charismatic character despite being probably the 145th most well-known Marvel hero. Second, I think Marvel may regret killing off Black Widow in the last Avengers saga, as the only main team member to die. The only woman, incidentally, so they have drafted Yelena to replace her (Black Widow was in eight MCU films, and Yelena is starting to catch up).
I do agree Yelena is a great character, but Black Widow was not one of the MCU’s best movies, and Thunderbolts was one of its lowest-earning. I do think there’s an issue with the character being a draw, not necessarily Pugh performing poorly in the role (she’s great). Still, I am surprised that this much importance has been placed on her, with her now in 3 of the last 4 MCU movies, including two that are probably going to earn a billion each.
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