Black Widow might turn out to be the end of the line for Scarlett Johansson’s Natasha Romanoff, but the blow was softened by the arrival of Florence Pugh’s Yelena Belova, who became an instant fan favorite. Nat’s younger sister made a big impression thanks to her fun personality, not to mention skills that rivaled Nat’s. She’s sure to be a major player in the future of the franchise, then, but which characters could she team up with?
Pugh was asked this very question while speaking with First Post. The British actress at first chose Elizabeth Olsen’s Scarlet Witch as her perfect team-up partner, mentioning how she’s always been “intrigued” by Wanda Maximoff.
“I’ve always been intrigued by the Scarlet Witch [played by Elizabeth Olsen]. Just because I really like how equally bizarre she is as well.”
However, Pugh then changed her mind and instead went for Tom Hiddleston’s Loki as she thinks Yelena and the God of Mischief would get on like a house on fire due to their matching ways.
“I think if Yelena were to bump into anyone from the MCU who is just as opinionated and in love of taking the p*** out of every single one of them, then I think she’d probably find [Tom Hiddleston’s] Loki very interesting because he kind of does that too.”
As promised by Black Widow‘s post-credits scene, Pugh will next be back as Yelena in the upcoming Hawkeye TV series, following Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ Val sending the assassin after Clint Barton, claiming that he’s responsible for her sister’s death. The odds are that she’s not going to kill Clint, of course, and will probably end up allying with him instead.
But as for where the heroine will go after that… Well, maybe Pugh will get her wish and unite with the Asgardian trickster in a future season of Loki. Anything’s possible in that time-traveling show, though it might be difficult to engineer a way for Yelena to end up in Loki’s kookier corner of the Marvel universe. Otherwise, there’s a decent chance that she could feature as the lead in a Black Widow sequel.
Hawkeye is set to premiere on Disney Plus on November 24th.