Hawkeye Directors Praise Florence Pugh’s Bats-t Crazy Approach To Yelena

Hawkeye directors Bert and Bertie praise Florence Pugh’s bats-t crazy approach to portraying Yelena Belova in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Hawkeye directors Bert and Bertie praise Florence Pugh’s bats-t crazy approach to portraying Yelena Belova. Earlier this year, Pugh made her MCU debut in Cate Shortland’s Black Widow, which served as a swan song for Scarlett Johansson’s Natasha Romanoff. In a film anchored by Johansson’s seasoned performance, Yelena, Natasha’s surrogate sister and fellow Red Room trainee, proved its sardonic standout, which bodes well for the future of Black Widow.

Black Widow’s post-credits scene saw Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) lead Yelena to believe Clint Barton/Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) was responsible for Natasha’s death in Avengers: Endgame. Marvel Studios’ latest Disney+ series, Hawkeye, takes place two years after the Blip and picks up with Clint in New York City working with Kate Bishop to combat the Tracksuit Mafia, Maya Lopez/Echo (Alaqua Cox), and a mysterious “Uncle.” By confronting Clint’s past as Ronin, grief over Natasha’s death, an overwhelming desire to make it home in time for Christmas. Hawkeye connects storylines from both Endgame and Black Widow and pisode 4, “Partners, Am I Right?” finally threw Yelena into the mix.

Related: Hawkeye: Why Kate Bishop Didn’t Shoot Yelena In Episode 4

During a recent interview with Entertainment Tonight, the duo Bert and Bertie, who directed episodes 3 through 5 of Hawkeye, talked Yelena. According to the directors, they had the privilege of seeing Black Widow long before it came out and had a good idea of how the stories would intertwine. While praising Pugh’s understanding of her character, they spoke on the collaborative process of crafting Yelena’s storyline. Read what they had to say below:

Bert: “Watching her decision-making and being really brave with the character not only was inspiring but also just a lot of fun. What’s great about her is she’s batsh*t crazy. She’s like us!”

Bertie: “For instance, we’d chosen a certain outfit for her to wear, but she was like, ‘I get that. But also, this is Yelena we’re talking about.’ She was so good at choosing things for great reasons.”

In episode 4, Clint and Kate were busy retrieving a stolen Avengers Rolex from Maya’s apartment before Yelena showed up. For the majority of the rooftop fight between Clint, Kate, Maya, and Yelena, the latter is masked and wearing some heavily-pocketed tactical gear (which resembles her Super-Adaptoid costume from the comics). Her unmasking is certainly a reveal for the audience. However, Clint doesn’t seem to know who she is beyond being a Black Widow assassin. Near the very end of the episode, Kate draws back her bow and aims at Yelena, who, as Bertie explains it, gives Kate a “look of warning, like, ‘Don’t mess with me.’ But also, there’s something a little bit deeper where you feel like this isn’t the end of their story together.”

As Hawkeye continues to explore Clint’s feelings of grief and guilt, Yelena will inevitably play a major role in the final two episodes. A promo for Hawkeye episode 5 makes it clear that Yelena does want to kill Clint. So, it’ll be interesting to see how Clint explains what happened on Vormir. On top of that, both Kate and Yelena are poised to inherit the mantles of Hawkeye and Black Widow, respectively, and it’s not hard to imagine the pair developing an extremely sarcastic and deadpan friendship. That being said, Pugh has a bats-t crazy future in the MCU as either an Avenger, Dark Avenger, Thunderbolt, or all of the above.

More: Yelena Hints At Dark Avengers Theory (Not Thunderbolts)

Source: Entertainment Tonight

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