Marvel

'Thunderbolts*' star Florence Pugh gives big shoutout to Elizabeth Olsen's 'WandaVision' performance

By Sophia Soto | Last updated May 1, 2025 3:04 PM ET

While on the press tour for Thunderbolts*, Florence Pugh expressed her love for Elizabeth Olsen's work in WandaVision, which premiered in 2021 on Disney+.

In an interview with MTV UK, she explained, "I love Elizabeth Olsen in WandaVision and everything that they did on that show. I thought that was just such a beautiful show, and it stands alone. It's really gorgeous, and the love that I just felt from the screen was amazing. Props to them."

In Thunderbolts*, Marvel Studios assembles an unconventional team of antiheroes — Yelena Belova, Bucky Barnes, Red Guardian, Ghost, Taskmaster and John Walker. After finding themselves ensnared in a death trap set by Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, these disillusioned castoffs must embark on a dangerous mission that will force them to confront the darkest corners of their pasts. Will this dysfunctional group tear themselves apart, or find redemption and unite as something much more before it’s too late?

This will be Pugh's third time reprising her role as Yelena Belova after starring in 2021's Black Widow and guest-starring in Hawkeye on Disney+.

While filming this project, the actress found herself relating to her character on a different level. "At the same time when we were making this movie, and this movie, it meets Yelena at a specific point in her life, I too was having a similar wobbly when I was making this movie," she shared. "It was just a really lovely thing to learn from the art that we were making that it's completely okay to ask for help, it's completely okay to admit that you're not feeling good, and it's completely okay to say that you're probably a bit weak at the moment and you need help. It was just a really lovely correlation to have between my character and myself, and I did all of those things and started to try and look after myself as opposed to pretend like I'm fine, like I had been doing."

The rest of the cast includes Sebastian Stan, Wyatt Russell, Olga Kurylenko, Lewis Pullman, Geraldine Viswanathan, Chris Bauer, Wendell Pierce, with David Harbour, Hannah John-Kamen, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus.

Thunderbolts* will be released in theaters on May 2. Pugh is set to return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe in Avengers: Doomsday, which is set to come out in May 2026.

Sophia Soto

Sophia Soto is a writer and interviewer with a passion for all things entertainment. She is a Senior Reporter at The Nerds of Color and contributes to Yardbarker, Screensphere, Den of Geek, What to Watch, Nerdtropolis, and Temple of Geek. You can see her past work on Remezcla, Young Hollywood, Looper, Paste Magazine, Primetimer, Soundsphere, and Starry Constellation Magazine

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