According to a new rumor, Florence Pugh's Yelena Belova will have a key role in three upcoming MCU movies. After being introduced in 2021's Black Widow, Pugh's former Red Room agent has become one of Marvel Studios' most-celebrated post-Endgame additions. She has since appeared in several Disney+ series (like the newly released Marvel Zombies) and led her own film in this year's Thunderbolts* (aka The New Avengers).
Given audience reception to Pugh's addition to the super-powered franchise, and the actress's overall star power, it will surprise no one that the MCU seems to have big plans for the new Marvel hero. However, the extent of those plans may run even deeper than fans would have thought.
In a recent post on X, insider MyTimeToShineHello shared that Florence Pugh's Yelena Belova will play a significant role in three upcoming Marvel movies: Spider-Man: Brand New Day, Avengers: Doomsday, and Avengers: Secret Wars.
The known scooper wrote that Pugh will have a "HUGE" part in the two Multiverse Saga-capping Avengers movies, while her Spider-Man 4 role will be confined to "a few scenes:"
"Yelena will have a HUGE role in both 'Avengers' films and a few scenes in 'Spider-Man: Brand New Day.'"
Given that, by the end of this year's Thunderbolts*, it was assumed the character would play a big part in Doomsday and Secret Wars, especially as she now leads the New Avengers (who are set to clash with Sam Wilson's mainline Avengers in the next MCU team-up). However, her role in Spider-Man 4 may come as a surprise.
Brand New Day has been confirmed to include several other returning Marvel Studios heroes outside of Tom Holland's wall-crawler, including Jon Bernthal's Punisher and Mark Ruffalo's Hulk. How Pugh's Yelena plays into that remains to be seen.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day, Avengers: Doomsday, and Avengers: Secret Wars are the only three MCU movies left on the Multiverse Saga slate (although that is subject to change). Brand New Day swings into theaters on July 31, 2026; Doomsday on December 18, 2026; and Secret Wars on December 17, 2027.
How Will Yelena Belova Factor Into Her Next Three MCU Movies?
Spider-Man: Brand New Day
Of the three movies mentioned in this new report, Spider-Man: Brand New Day is easily the most surprising to see Florence Pugh's New Avenger pop up in relation to.
Typically, the Tom Holland-led Spider-Man movies have not been these wide-spanning crossover affairs, only including one or two characters from the greater MCU rather than a whole bunch (like Spider-Man 4 is seemingly shaping up to).
However, considering it briefly, one can easily see how Yelena would be a key character in a potential Spider-Man story. Seeing as she is leading the New Avengers team, a group that calls New York City Home, it would make sense that they may try to recruit one of the Big Apple's most famous heroes.
So, Pugh popping up for one or two scenes, attempting to sway Peter Parker to join her new superhero team, could be a perfect fit for Spider-Man: Brand New Day.
Avengers: Doomsday
As for Yelena's role in Avengers: Doomsday, that is a little more easily predictable. At the end of Thunderbolts*, a scene from Doomsday was shown.
This post-credits stinger saw Pugh's MCU hero and the rest of the New Avengers looking on as a Multiversal craft (assumed to belong to the Fantastic Four) appeared in their solar system.
Seeing as the Thunderbolts/New Avengers have been confirmed to be one of the super-powered teams to take on the villainous Doctor Doom in the 2026 Avengers movie, Yelena will almost certainly be a part of it.
Avengers: Secret Wars
And with Avengers: Secret Wars, Yelena will again play a leading role as one of the most prominent young heroes now working within the MCU.
The character is seemingly being propped up as one of the pillars of the Marvel Studios brand going forward, so Secret Wars will have to give Pugh's character her narrative thrust for the next era of MCU storytelling moving forward.
Secret Wars has been rumored to reset (at least some of) the MCU, bringing along only a few select elements from the past iteration of the interconnected comic book movie canon. Yelena is assumed to be one of these.
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