An MCU fan-favorite makes a callback to a key Avengers: Endgame death in a new Thunderbolts* clip.
The marketing blitz for Thunderbolts* is well underway. Since the movie is nearing its theatrical debut on May 2, Marvel has been making sure all eyes are on its latest cinematic endeavor.
Thunderbolts* Clip Sees Yelena Discuss Natasha Romanoff
The official Marvel YouTube channel uploaded the first full clip from Marvel Studios' Thunderbolts*. In the sequence shown, Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh) stands high atop Malaysia's Merdeka 118 building on a mission, but she doesn't seem to be too into it.
Yelena's thoughts are heard through voiceover:
"There's something wrong with me. An emptiness. I thought it started when my sister died, but now it feels like something... bigger. Just a... void. Or maybe I'm just bored."
Agent Belova specifically mentioned her "sister" dying. As the MCU faithful could surely point out, Yelena's sister (really, adoptive sister) was Scarlett Johansson's Natasha Romanoff, aka the Black Widow.
Nat's death occurred on the planet Vormir in Avengers: Endgame, released in 2019. In that film, she sacrificed her life and hurled herself off a cliff, much in the same way that Yelena leaps off of Merdeka 118 in the clip, creating an interesting, if not grim, parallel. Natasha did this to save Clint Barton's life and win the Soul Stone.
Intriguingly, Yelena's sister also explicitly notes feeling a "void" inside her since Natasha's untimely passing. The big bad of Thunderbolts* is the Sentry's other, darker half: The vicious and immensely powerful entity known as the Void (who can be glimpsed in several other looks at the film).
But Yelena Belova has no direct connection to the Void, so her using the word is likely just thematic connectivity with the villain.
Check out the full clip below:
Fans Can Expect Plenty of Other MCU References in Thunderbolts*
For a movie that was once described as a sequel to 2021's Black Widow, Thunderbolts* will serve as a follow-up to several other MCU projects.
Each member of the main cast (save for Bob Reynolds, played by Lewis Pullman) has appeared in at least one other MCU movie or show.
Ava Starr/Ghost first tormented Scott Lang and his allies in Ant-Man and the Wasp. John Walker originally cropped up in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier as a thorn in Sam Wilson's side. And Bucky Barnes has played in the Marvel Cinematic Universe almost since the beginning.
Naturally, Thunderbolts* will contain tons of callbacks, name-drops, references, and easter eggs to where these characters have appeared previously.
Another moment from the movie's marketing campaign features Bucky and Alexei Shostakov discussing which version of the super soldier serum they received. With all the different permutations of Dr. Erskine's original formula from the 1940s floating around, this is surely a worthy conversation.
Audiences will likely get context on what each member of the team has been doing since their last on-screen MCU role.
Yelena appears to have been in an aimless haze since Natasha's demise in Avengers: Endgame. As seen in Disney+'s Hawkeye, the freed Widow is likely still working for Julia Louis-Dreyfus' Val, perhaps beginning to question her motives for doing so.
And for Bucky, as revealed in Captain America: Brave New World, the ex-Winter Soldier is now a sitting member of the United States Congress.
It will be interesting to discover how Ava Starr and Antonia Dreykov (aka Taskmaster) have fared since their introductory projects, especially since the pair hasn't significantly contributed to Thunderbolts*' pre-release run-up.
