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The MCU's New Black Widow Needs Her Own Movie Before Thunderbolts
The MCU's new Black Widow Yelena deserves her own solo movie before her potential return in Thunderbolts. The adoptive sister of Natasha Romanoff, Yelena has quickly become one of the franchise's most dynamic characters. In the earliest Black Widow scenes, she displays her fighting prowess and training that keeps her focused on her mission, always. She goes on to find Natasha after years of not speaking to her. Natasha assumed Yelena had gotten out of the black widows successfully and was living a normal life. Yelena, as it turns out, has been a trained killer for years before defecting from the Red Room thanks to a widow who freed her. In an affecting arc, she spends her time trying to save as many black widows as she can, eventually with the assistance of her family.
In Black Widow's end credits scene, Yelena visits Natasha's grave only to be confronted by Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, asking her to kill Clint Barton. Yelena next appears in Hawkeye, where viewers learn that she was blipped while trying to save more black widows. In the show, she befriends Kate Bishop and has some hilarious banter, establishing her as a fully-fleshed-out character, one arguably even more charming than Natasha. She does try to kill Hawkeye, avenging her sister in her eyes, before he explains to her that Natasha's death was her own choice. In the end, Yelena forces herself to back off, which is the last time she's seen in the MCU. Now, with a Thunderbolts movie in the works and Yelena a part of that team in the comics, many believe that will be her next appearance in the franchise.
However, given everything Yelena's been through up to this point as a character and the way she stood out in Black Widow and Hawkeye, she deserves a solo movie first. It's also worth keeping in mind that Florence Pugh is one of the biggest names in the MCU (which will only grow after high-profile projects like Don't Worry Darling). It seems like a waste to not capitalize on her star power. A solo project starring Pugh as Yelena could also create more opportunities to delve into her character's grief over Natasha's death and the way their relationship affected her. This was arguably the most emotionally-impactful part of Hawkeye, even though her story wasn't the primary focus of the show.
How A Yelena-Led Solo Movie Could Fix Black Widow's Legacy
Giving Yelena her own solo movie before Thunderbolts would also help solidify Natasha's Black Widow legacy and would help those who still feel unhappy with her death and believe that it wasn't properly honored in Avengers: Endgame. Natasha didn't even have her own funeral, she just had Hawkeye and Wanda reminiscing about her life. So with that in mind, not only would Yelena's movie help further the wider MCU story by honoring Natasha's legacy, it would also allow Yelena to continue on her own path from there, going in unexpected directions. After she decides not to kill Hawkeye, her whereabouts are unknown, which is a perfect setup for her own movie.
With this amount of backstory in what is supposed to be a supporting character, Marvel has definitely done a lot more with less. While it's likely Yelena will eventually appear in another ensemble project like Thunderbolts, she's more than earned her very own Black Widow movie first.
