Florence Pugh wants to bring Yelena’s ‘light and charm’ back for Avengers: Doomsday

By Joe Allen Published May 4, 2025

Florence Pugh’s Yelena is only becoming more and more central to the Marvel project with each passing film. Thunderbolts is the first movie where she’s the film’s lead, though, and it’s also the one where she brings the most emotional baggage.

Coming out of Thunderbolts, though, Pugh said that she’s hoping she can bring Yelena back to a lighter place when we next see her in Avengers: Doomsday.

“I hope that she’s happy now. I hope that she feels fulfilled, like she has purpose,” Pugh told Variety when asked what she was hoping to see from Yelena in Doomsday. “And I hope that we get to see some of her light and her charm and her color again because I loved playing that before.”

Pugh also discussed her excitement about the huge ensemble that’s being assembled for the film, saying that there were too many big names in the cast to choose from. “Oh, god, there’s too many people in it [to choose]! Pedro Pascal, obviously, always and forever. Paul Rudd, yes, so funny. Genuinely, the idea that all of those people are going to be in the same movie is nutso sauce,” she said.

Although we know that Pugh will be in the film, we have no idea how big Yelena and her castmate’s roles will be in the film. Given the way Pugh’s star has continued to rise in the years since she joined the MCU, though, it’s a solid bet to expect her to be central to whatever Marvel has planned moving forward.