MCU: Sam Wilson's New Avengers Team Will Include 1 Unlikely Hero (Report)

According to a new report, Sam Wilson's new Avengers team will include one unlikely hero that may surprise fans. After being teased at the end of Jake Schreier's Thunderbolts* movie, the new Avengers (no, not the New Avengers) are being primed to make their on-screen debut as a part of the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday, joining forces to take on the dastardly Doctor Doom played by Robert Downey Jr. However, who will join Anthony Mackie's Captain America on that team remains a massive question mark for fans.

Insider Daniel Richtman shared that he has heard Yelena Belova (played by Florence Pugh) is being eyed to appear as a member of Sam Wilson's Avengers. This may shock some, as the pair of MCU heroes seemed at odds by the end of Thunderbolts*, seemingly setting up a conflict between the New Avengers (aka the Thunderbolts) and Sam's new Avengers. 

Richtman posted the report on his X page, remarking that Yelena will join Sam Wilson's super-powered team sometime in Avengers: Doomsday. 

Yelena was last seen leading the Thunderbolts/New Avengers at the end of Thunderbolts*. That movie's post-credits scene set up the events of Doomsday, as the former Black Widow assassin spotted an unidentified spacecraft arriving in the solar system, seemingly belonging to the Fantastic Four.

Anthony Mackie's Sam Wilson/Captain America will lead the Avengers for the first time in Avengers: Doomsday, standing alongside heroes like Chris Hemsworth's Thor and Letitia Wright's Black Panther to take on the dangerous and mysterious Multiverse-faring villain Doctor Doom (played by returning MCU star Robert Downey Jr.). Doomsday, directed by veteran MCU filmmakers Joe and Anthony Russo, will arrive in theaters on May 1, 2026 and marks the first in a two-part Avengers story that will conclude with 2027's Avengers: Secret Wars. 

Why Will Yelena Belova Join the Avengers?

This report will likely confuse fans who just saw Thunderbolts*⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ in theaters. 

Thunderbolts* just spent its entire post-credits stinger explaining that Sam Wilson was bristling with the fact that the Thunderbolts/New Avengers were using the Avengers name without the express permission of the original team. 

So, wow, is it that a character like Yelena Belova will end up working alongside Anthony Mackie's Sam Wilson after the two characters are poised to be at odds in Avengers: Doomsday? Well, both things can be true. Doomsday will surely be a long movie (just like the Avengers movies that came before it).

It can start with heroes like Florence Pugh's Yelena and Anthony Mackie's Sam at each other's necks over something as petty as the Avengers' name. They might be forced to come together and put their differences aside with the emergence of Doctor Doom and whatever the terrifying movie villain has planned for the MCU's iconic metahumans.

Then, by the end of the movie, not only will Yelena have become a full-fledged Avenger member but so will the rest of the Thunderbolts team, with the likes of Red Guardian, US Agent, and Sentry all joining Earth's Mightiest Heroes proper—or at least serving as a subsidiary of it.

Even if the New Avengers were to continue beyond Doomsday and its members did not join the Avengers proper, it would not be all that surprising if Yelena served as a go-between for both teams. 

Florence Pugh is one of the biggest young stars working in the MCU, so adding her to the official Avengers roster would be a big deal. This would allow the 29-year-old actress to shoulder some of the weight of the franchise going into the future in a way that only official Avengers members get the chance to.