Don’t worry, darling: Florence Pugh’s Black Widow is starring in Marvel’s Thunderbolts
Plus: David Harbour, Sebastian Stan, Wyatt Russell, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and more will round out the oddballs fighting evil in the 2024 film
Aux News Black Widow
Some big news for fans of comic book antiheroes, anti-villains, anti-what-have-you this afternoon, as Marvel confirmed at its big, long, incredibly exhausting D23 panel today that Florence Pugh’s Yelena Belova will be starring in the upcoming Thunderbolts movie.
That’s good news, obviously, in so far as Yelena was one of the best parts of both the Black Widow movie and the Hawkeye TV show, and seeing her at the center of a crew of baddish people trying to do good—that’s basically the Thunderbolts hook, supervillains doing superhero stuff—is likely to make for plenty of fun. Especially since she’ll be reunited with her Black Widow co-star David Harbour, with Kevin Feige calling “the demented father-daughter relationship between Red Guardian and Yelena…obviously one of the best parts of the MCU.”
Also returning from Black Widow: Olga Kurylenko, whose Taskmaster will hopefully get a bit more to do than just be a glorified attack dog this time around. In fact, the film seems to be culling aggressively from the rougher edges of the MCU’s roster: The rest of the cast includes Wyatt Russell as Falcon And The Winter Soldier’s U.S. Agent, Ghost from the Ant-Man movies, and Sebastian Stan’s Bucky Barnes, who, as Stan put it, has somehow become the most stable person on the team. They’re apparently going to be overseen by Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ Countess, who kind of seems like she might end up being the Amanda Waller to this little Suicide Squad.
All told: A pretty intriguing premise, and a pretty prominently stacked cast. We’ll have to wait and see if the team’s chemistry lives up to the hype when the Thunderbolts movie makes its way into theaters in July of 2024.
68 Comments
I don’t understand the title to this article, is it in reference to something posted incessantly for the last two months?
The only connection to this and the other movie is they both have Florence Pugh in them…but yes, that is what it is referencing.
Interesting that they aren’t confirming Tim Roth.I’m also looking forward to seeing the dynamic between Bucky and John Walker. Hoping for some real “Kid, I served with Captain America” energy there.
Bucky’s unfiltered hatred of John Walker was one of the best parts of the tv series.“Looking strong, John!”
I’m guessing they’re holding off until She-Hulk is over.
Oh, it’s great, and I think it’s also time for Walker to give back a little, especially now that we know Yelena was also Snapped. “Great. You served with Rogers. You know who I served with? The guys that were called when someone realized every single person guarding France’s nukes were dust. The guys that were called when North Korea finished its census and realized they had a bigger army than South Korea and invaded. Some of them died and Banner didn’t bring them back.“So yeah, some of us worked for a living while you were gone.”
Then he’d be all like, “Yeah? Well, my dad kicked Elvis in the shin and lived to tell the tale.”And then Bucky would say “Who?”
When Black Widow came out, I felt like everything about it was overshadowed by the Scarlett Johansson lawsuit, and so Yelena didn’t quite became the beloved fan-favorite she should’ve been. Fortunately, we got more of her in Hawkeye, and the appreciation for her has grown.What I’m saying is, I am totally down for more Yelena…and the rest of the cast looks awesome (though shouldn’t there also be some Daniel Bruhl to provide dry, acerbic commentary?).
I didn’t think Black Widow was that bad honestly. I think most of the negativity for it came because it was a prequel of a character a lot of fans thought was given the shaft already. Plus it was a weird starter for the next phase. To be honest I kinda think most of the post Endgame offerings have failed to really hit it out of the park. Imho only the Eternals was really bad but nothing has been great either. I feel like the MCU is gonna be spinning it’s wheels until we get some major big things hit like a F4 or X-Men movie or the inevitable return of the original Avengers.
For the first 2/3 of Black Widow I thought it was a *really* strong movie. The final act really fell apart for me, but it was nowhere near the “travesty” some fans would have you believe. The weird timing both in reality, and in terms of doing the Widow movie … after she died…
I believe it. We could have had an excellent spy thriller instead of what that creative and financial debacle masquerading as the long awaited Black Widow film was.
I don’t think it was a creative debacle, but it was muddled. I felt like the first 2/3 was more in the vein of a Bourne movie… but the third act was horseshit. Couldn’t stand how it had to turn the Red Room into “being in control of all these powerful governments.” Yet it felt so empty. This old dude seems basically alone in his stupid sky palace. NOthing about the widow program suggested something like that. And instead of espionage, it was a giant blow everything up thingy. Taskmaster was a letdown. I don’t expect things to be “JUST LIKE IN THE COMICS”, but it’s absolutely a case of “why bother?” when outside of the name and some handwaves in the costume it had nothing to do. If you watch closely, she does do some “moves” from other guys but they don’t do anything with the powerset.Anyway. We all know why it didn’t happen until so late in the game – Perlmutter’s sexist nonsense. If we got a Widow movie right after Civil War it would have MATTERED. Instead, we got a meh coda that didn’t tell us much new long after it was relevant.
The reasons I think Black Widow was a massive fiasco is a very long list but I’ll start with Taskmaster and raise the question as to did no-one learn from the Weapon X Deadpool fiasco in X-Men Origins Wolverine just for starters?
I didn’t think so either – It’s a perfectly fine movie with some great bits. I and of itself, it’s good.The timing of it I think hurt – Had it come out pre- Infinity War, I think it would have been better received.But by the time it came out two years after Endgame, the audience was ready to find out what was happening next, rather than an extended flashback to five years earlier.It’ll probably play better upon rewatch.
Even if it would have come out when it was supposed to, fairly quickly after Endgame, would have helped.
“We need a female Avenger!”“We’ve got a female Avenger.”“No, one who isn’t a Russian spy-whore. How about an all-American fighter pilot, with no discernible characteristics and the pure blonde hair and blue eyes of the master race.”“Might wanna leave that last bit off the marketing.”
and the pure blonde hair and blue eyes of the master raceOh yeah, ‘cause Scarlett Johnasson’s Black Widow was such diverse casting.
Shang-Chi was undeniably fun though. That bus fight scene.
Shang-Chi was undeniably fun though.It’s probably the best MCU movie nobody will remember in two years.
The prequel aspect turned off most fans, I believe. It somehow had to answer for what happened to Nat in Endgame, and set off the brand new direction of Phase 4. If it had come out when it was set, after Civil War, I really believe it would’ve been better received as just a good MCU romp. It works really well as an aftermath to that film. That’s all it was meant to be.
The version of Zemo that’s absolutely committed to killing anyone he meets with anything resembling superpowers is going to be a hard sell as a member of the hot new super team, I think. Maybe we’ll get lucky and Sam Rockwell will be around as their tech guy though.
I didn’t like SJo’s BW or pretty much any of the material they’ve written for her.
I still think we get Zemo. In fact,*Spoilers for the Thunderbolts comic*There’s a mysterious character in the Thunderbolts storyline named Citizen V who’s heroic and an enigma, and then it’s revealed that he’s actually Baron Zemo in disguise. I could easily see this happening in the movie.
Where’s Baron Zemo?
I think we all know where Zemo is:
Came here for a Zemo dance break, was not disappointed 😜
Trying to un-fuck the Ferrari F1 team. Still.
Is that even possible? Question
Modena, Italy:“GIULIA! BRING ME MY LAWYERS AND THE CASHBOX LABELLED ‘FIA BRIBE MONEY’!”
“Cashbox-box”
God, I miss Kimi.
Songbird’s the one that’s really missing here.
There’s a rumor that she’ll be introduced here.
Marvel keeps trying to reintroduce Thunderbolts, seemingly without “getting” what worked about the original book. The original book was c-list villains posing as heroes as part of a plan by Zemo. That plan failed, partly because Hawkeye joined the team, but partly because characters such as Beetle, Screaming Mimi, and Goliath liked being seen as heroes & tried to live up to the expectation of their new identities.It shouldn’t be Marvel’s answer to Suicide Squad. As someone who loved the original run, and feels obligation bound to at least sample every other incarnation of the name, I’m hoping for a bit more T-bolts in my T-bolts movie.
I know, hence my complaining about the lack of Songbird.
So is Pugh actually going by Black Widow in the movie or is this another classic bad AV Club headline?
Technically weren’t all the girls trained in the secret Russian program Black Widows?
Maybe? idk, I could swear she was referred to as White Widow at some point but maybe I’m misremembering.
Nope; they were all Black Widows.
huh, well, egg on my face then
White Widow is Vanessa Kirby in Mission Impossible
Natasha was either never, or almost never referred to as “The Black Widow” in the movies, so why should Yelena Belova. That’s true of many of the characters, that their comic book names are rarely, if ever used in the movies. Wanda Maximoff was never called The Scarlet Witch until the end of her series, after multiple appearances. Nobody calls Rhodey “War Machine”, nobody calls Bucky Barnes “The Winter Soldier” etc, etc..
I thought in IM 2 Rhodey was called “War Machine”, and in 3 they joked about now he was “Iron Patriot.”
Maybe I should have said that nobody addresses them by those names. No one says “Hey, War Machine”, or “Hey, Black Widow”, etc.
“Especially since she’ll be reunited with her Black Widow co-star David Harbour, with Kevin Feige calling “the demented father-daughter relationship between Red Guardian and Yelena…obviously one of the best parts of the MCU.””He’s not wrong. The relationship between these two characters whose names I forgot until I read this article are one of the highlights of this entire universe.
They sure were characters in a movie.
I love reading that an actor is part of the MCU and being like, “Oh yeah…” Like, I’d forgotten Florence Pugh, David Harbour, and Julia Louis Dreyfus were all part of the franchise, and as I’m typing this I just remembered that Mickey Rourke and Peter Serafinowicz are as well. And the best part is… they all got paid.
I love reading that an actor is part of the MCU and being like, “Oh yeah…”It’s starting to apply to any working actor in North America and large portions of the other continents.
Obviously is doing a lot of heavy lifting in that sentence!
Good grief. Get off Florence Pugh’s dick for a minute.
Yeah , to be honest she’s gone from , “That actress who’s in a lot of films I haven’t seen “ to “I swear to zod , if I hear one more fucking thing about her , Olivia whatsit , and the gobshite from One Direction , I am going to go fucking postal”.
She’s a good actress who has been in some good movies. Still, you guys. Shut the fuck up.
IKR, are actors not allowed to peak now?
She’s a good actress who has been in some good movies.And now she’s doing shit MCU stuff for money and the recognition that’ll allow her to do more good movies. It’s a thing.
Seems like Hayden panatierre v.2
Watch the swearing.
I was waiting for your reply to this one. Thank you for not disappointing.
I think she’s awesome, but her star is gonna burn the F out if it keeps going like this, and through no fault of her own.
I think she’s awesome, but her star is gonna burn the F out if it keeps going like thisWhat does “like this” mean, exactly? She was cast as one character in the MCU. Her contract clearly asks her to reprise that character every time they need her to. That’s it. The rest of her projects are still indies or auteur films (Sebastián Lelio, Nolan, Villeneuve, etc). I don’t get the issue. In fact, I’m happy she’s being recognized as one of the best actors of her generation.
god do i wish it was Killmonger instead of Bucky on that team
I can’t wait to see my favorite superheros face off against their exact counterparts!What a unique concept!
When half the cast is from one movie, they might as well call it Black Widow 2
We’re getting so much Florence Pugh (coverage) it’s almost a given there’s a backlash in a years time. Probably initiated by media who hype her up now.
Yelena/Kate Bishop buddy comedy or GTFO.
Exhausting? Walk it off. This is your job. No one cares.The team still needs a bruiser and I don’t think Red Guardian is it. Abomination or Red Hulk with a recast Ross – Stephen Lang, check your voice mail – would be nice.I will say I am glad to see stories about what actually happened rather than whining about not getting a 40-minute FF sizzle reel and the entire X-Men cast and whatever the fuck else people wanted.