Florence Pugh Teases a Different Yelena in ‘Thunderbolts*’

Yelena Belova has been through a lot. She was raised in a sleeper cell and turned into an assassin from a young age. Then, she was wiped out of existence for five years.

When she came back, she found out that her sister, Natasha Romanoff (aka Black Widow), had died sacrificing herself to save everyone. On top of all that, Yelena is now part of the Thunderbolts team, made up of some pretty unpredictable characters.

In Thunderbolts*, Yelena is not the same person she used to be. As Florence Pugh explains, she’s been through years of trauma and it’s left its mark. The Yelena we meet now is someone who’s had to deal with a lot of loss and pain.

With a team made up of former heroes and anti-heroes, including characters like John Walker (U.S. Agent) and Ghost, things are bound to get messy. But Yelena is still standing, carrying the weight of her past.

As for Wyatt Russell, he’s stoked to see how his character, John Walker, has evolved. John was introduced in The Falcon and The Winter Soldier as a rough, unlikable character, and he only got worse after losing the Captain America title.

In Thunderbolts*, though, John is back with a new look, and Russell is happy with the upgrade. He even joked that his new helmet looks way cooler than the previous one, which he felt looked like ‘the end of a penis.’ Let’s just say the new design is a lot more fitting for his now edgy character.

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