Marvel fans were introduced to (and immediately fell in love with) Florence Pugh's Yelena Belova in 2021's Black Widow. Now, she's back alongside her Black Widow co-star David Harbour, who plays Alexei Shostakov/Red Guardian, in Thunderbolts*.
Still, she does miss Scarlett Johansson, who was a long-time lead of the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Natasha Romanoff, aka Black Widow.
While Natasha died sacrificing herself in Avengers: Endgame, Black Widow came out two years after that and was a chance for fans to properly say goodbye to the character. The movie was Johansson's first solo film, which was extremely overdue, and a way to pass the Black Widow torch from Natasha to her adoptive younger sister.
"My whole journey with Marvel was because of Scarlett trusting me and Scarlett wanting me to join her movie six years ago. So I always miss her presence, and I always feel like it was such a mean thing to begin the journey with someone and then you never get to work with them again on it," the actress expressed to The Hollywood Reporter. "It was kind of wild that was the first and the last time I would get to experience this world with her. But I am genuinely always just hoping that she’s proud. I always have that in the back of my head, like, 'Oh, I hope she’s happy that we came in.' So I do miss her a lot on set, yes. We would have a lot of laughter."
However, she's not the only one missing her Black Widow castmate. Harbour has spoken to Marvel about Rachel Weisz's Melina, who we have no idea what happened to.
"I think there’s still very much potential for Melina," he shared. "There was a beautiful [deleted] scene with me and Rachel [kissing] after the crash. I touch her face and everything. It was one of my favorite moments from that movie."
He continued to explain, "But I do think that there’s potential for Melina’s reemergence in some kind of interesting way, and I would love to have her back in Alexei’s life. She would add such an interesting complexity."
Black Widow is streaming on Disney+. You can see Pugh and Harbour reunite in Thunderbolts* on May 2 in theaters.
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