In the years since “Avengers: Endgame,” the MCU has inarguably struggled to find its footing again, after killing off or retiring of a whole lot of beloved characters without offering many reliable replacements. But with Jake Schreier’s “Thunderbolts*,” the franchise cemented that it found something sorely needed: an anchor. Namely, in Florence Pugh’s Yelena Belova.
We don’t mean a literal “anchor being,” as introduced in “Deadpool & Wolverine.” For those unfamiliar, an anchor being is someone who’s so important to their universe that, when they die, that entire reality begins dying as well. Only one anchor being has been introduced so far: Wolverine. It’s impossible to say this early whether Yelena will be another.
What we can say with certainty is that Pugh’s character feels like Marvel’s first sturdy stake in the ground in years — someone that the franchise can and arguably should build around. As a result, she’s currently the only character that lends any true excitement to “Avengers: Doomsday,” especially now that the trailer has dropped.
Nearly two decades into the MCU now, it can be easy to forget that it all started by crafting one character fans loved — Tony Stark — and building outward into more. It was a risk at the time, as Iron Man was a relatively unknown character, mostly just chosen because Marvel could sell toys around him.
At this point, they don’t really have to follow the same formula, but it’s worth noting that the “New Avengers” similarly were made up entirely of (mostly) unknowns. Including “Thunderbolts*,” Yelena has only had a total of three appearances in the universe. But, you probably remember every one of them.
Tony was also brand new, and he became a figurehead of the franchise, woven into the very fabric of the Infinity Saga from the start. Then, by the time the first “Avengers” film came around in 2012, we had six core characters that we had spent years with, and were ready to see save the world together. If they showed up in a project — which they often did, because interconnectivity seemed much more prioritized in the early years — it felt more weighted.
Through Phases 1-3, that group expanded, culminating in a massive team-up that led to literal explosions of cheering in theaters when Chris Evans’ Captain America finally uttered “Avengers Assemble” in “Endgame.” The thing is, that same battle wiped most of our key players off the board. Some are dead — including Yelena’s own sister Natasha (Scarlett Johansson) — and some are just…chilling? It’s a bit hard to remember, but we’ve tried to keep track.
Since then, there haven’t been many characters that feel available to keep coming back to as a sort of waypoint for the franchise (in part because appearances at all are so scattered). Sebastian Stan’s Bucky served as a bridge in “Thunderbolts*,” and clearly, Chris Hemsworth’s Thor is proving that he’s still there to turn to when a big, big battle comes around.
But when Marvel announced the return of Robert Downey Jr. and Chris Evans for “Doomsday,” the move drew more criticism than excitement. Many opined that their return was simply proof that the studio had run out of creative juice and instead was grasping at (and shelling out a lot of money for) any kind of recognition for fans. Evans’ presence in the latest trailer only brought that sentiment to the surface again.
The characters we expected to take over, who were specifically given major mantles to take up, like Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) and Shuri (Letitia Wright) have still been figuring out their places. The former was only just given the task of reassembling an Avengers team in “Captain America: Brave New World” last year — six years after “Endgame.”
Meanwhile, it looks like we’ll only see how Shuri is doing as the leader of Wakanda when she shows up again in “Doomsday” — an event that is supposed to bring together all the current A-teams.
Those characters also found themselves in the unfortunate timing of a phase of the MCU that floundered in its identity and quality, through no fault of their own. They’re certainly still in play as major pieces, seen several times in the “Doomsday” trailer, but two key characters does not a franchise make.
We’ve gotten a lot of new characters, but none that have really proven to be a go-to for the future in a meaningful way. Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani), a.k.a. Ms. Marvel, was poised to set up the Young Avengers, but given how Marvel has pivoted multiple times over since “Avengers: Endgame,” it’s one of the many storylines that we really have no idea whether it’ll pan out.
Yelena is the only character among the new bunch that we’ve really spent any proper time with heading into “Avengers: Doomsday.” More importantly, it hasn’t been too long since we’ve seen her, since “Thunderbolts*” released last year.
Simu Liu’s Shang-Chi is in that “Doomsday” trailer — fighting Channing Tatum’s Gambit, for some reason — and while it’s legitimately wonderful to see him again, it’s also a massive question that the movie is going to have to answer. Since his debut movie in 2021, Shang-Chi has appeared in exactly zero other Marvel films or TV projects. So how and why is he suddenly joining the “Doomsday” fray?
It’s fun to know the Fox universe X-Men are also coming back, but similarly, they currently have zero ties to anything we’ve seen thus far. “Deadpool & Wolverine” brought back Chris Evans’ Johnny Storm for a laugh, and it worked, but just for the laughs. Patrick Stewart’s Professor X made his first return in “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness,” and was promptly killed. We don’t really expect much of him in “Doomsday.”
We also know that these aren’t going to be our long-term X-Men, as Marvel is currently casting for the MCU versions of those heroes (and potentially debuting one in “Spider-Man: Brand New Day).
“The Fantastic Four: First Steps” was generally fine, but it was also one of the few truly standalone stories in the recent MCU. They’ve had zero interaction with any of the heroes we know, and yet they’re now among the universes colliding for “Doomsday.” It’s unclear why their universe is even coming into play, save for the fact that it introduced Doctor Doom directly, albeit barely.
Presumably, “Avengers: Doomsday” sees Doom as the core villain, but he’s typically a Fantastic Four baddie. And yet, even in “First Steps,” all we got of him was a side view in a post-credits scene. There was no reference in the script to him, and we have no concept of his current relationship with Marvel’s first family. The excitement to have him around in “Doomsday” is mostly just…to have him around.
More than anything, “Avengers: Doomsday” feels like a mash-up of action figures (which, sure, could be very fun! We’ll see!).
But, as the leader of The New Avengers — we’ll see if they actually get to hang onto that title — Yelena has been both well placed and exceedingly well executed. It not only makes sense to see her in the “Doomsday” trailer, but also gives some excitement for her future.
Much of that execution comes down to the performance given by Pugh herself, which is undeniably excellent. And, as the original Avengers actors taught us, performance matters.
Playing a superhero can get silly fast, and it takes a specific caliber of performance to not only make it enjoyable, but also give it some gravity. The actors that played the original team did so in a way that felt like no one else could play them. The same now feels true for Florence Pugh as Yelena Belova.
It’s an added win that Yelena truly feels like an original character, and not just a slipshod re-creation of her sister, considering how many pieces of the characters are rooted in the same events.
Also like Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson, Chris Evans and more OGs of the MCU before her, Pugh appears to have a strong grasp on what elements of her character and Yelena’s story are most important. That pivotal “Thunderbolts*” scene between Yelena and Alexei, where she calls him out for not being there enough following Natasha’s death? That was something Pugh specifically fought for, along with costar David Harbour.
Of course, an actor can play a character near flawlessly — see: Tatiana Maslany as She-Hulk, Kathryn Hahn as Agatha Harkness, Anthony Mackie as Sam Wilson and plenty of other recent additions to the MCU — and still not be treated as an anchor in the universe.
But Yelena Belova, at least for now, is different. She’s a presence in the MCU that is both delightful and full of gravitas, both classic and new.
She has a direct emotional tie to one of the original staples of the MCU, being Natasha’s sister. That tie then led to her confronting Natasha’s best friend Clint, and developing a (sadly short-lived) connection to yet another Avenger in “Hawkeye.” But she wasn’t actually part of the “Endgame” stories, and ushers in something fresh. Yelena represents both past and future, in many ways.
The characterization of Yelena also feels reminiscent of the early days of multiple Avengers. Like her sister, she has a desire to look out for others and a draw to found family. Of the successful concepts in the MCU, found family was one that decidedly worked over and over. It was key to bringing the original team together.
Like Steve Rogers, “Thunderbolts*” saw her encourage Bob (Lewis Pullman) that the best way to fight is together. Yelena is even reminiscent of Tony at times, though admittedly with some key differences in personality.
Her angrily snapping at her team after their first loss to Sentry about not being a team certainly had some echoes of when Tony angrily told Captain America (Chris Evans, at the time) that “we are not soldiers.” Like Stark before her, there’s a whiff of “fake it ’til you make it” to Yelena, except both are exceptionally skilled.
Like just about all of the original heroes that anchored this franchise, it feels like she’s on a proper journey, even if it’s still in its early stages. By and large, the journeys we started to get sucked into for others have fallen into the void.
Combine all of this and Pugh is not only the anchor that steadied “Thunderbolts*,” but Yelena feels like the only real anchor in the MCU. She’s someone we want to keep coming back to, and who feels like the story can lean on.
Seeing some vets return for “Avengers: Doomsday” should be fun, but right now, it’s Yelena that’s got us most ready for the next film.
“Avengers: Doomsday” hits theaters on December 18.
