Florence Pugh has Tom Holland to thank for her appearance in Spider-Man Brand New Day, and that isn't just a hook to keep you reading. Appearing on Jimmy Fallon's 'The Tonight Show', the actress revealed that it was the MCU's Peter Parker who helped plant the idea of bringing Spider-Man and Yelena Belova together on screen. “All of this happened because of Tom”, Florence Pugh explained on the talk show's sofa, recalling that back when Black Widow came out in 2021, Yelena was still a long way from being one of the MCU's most important characters. Tom Holland, though, had been asked who he'd like to see in a future Spider-Man film and spontaneously named Florence Pugh, saying he wanted her to join the adventure as Yelena.
“He said: ‘No, actually, I want to do it with Florence Pugh, who plays Yelena.’ And because of that, fans started getting really excited about seeing them together”, the actress said.
A request that eventually became reality, since Yelena was among the surprise guests in Spider-Man Brand New Day — and her name hadn't leaked before the film's release.
Florence Pugh will keep occupying an important place in the MCU, too, as she's set to reprise her role as Yelena in Avengers Doomsday, due in cinemas on 18 December. It's a particularly busy date for the actress, as she'll also be on the bill for Denis Villeneuve's Dune Part 3 on the very same day. As a reminder, Florence Pugh made her MCU debut in Black Widow before returning to the character in Thunderbolts*, and popping up in cameos here and there across various MCU series, all of which helped build her character's standing. It's worth noting that, as the sister of Natasha Romanoff, her job is to take up the Black Widow mantle after Natasha's death in Avengers Endgame.
$2.5 billion at the box office, but a return to cinemas
Either way, Sony Pictures clearly doesn't intend to leave things there with Spider-Man Brand New Day. After its initial theatrical run, the film directed by Destin Daniel Cretton is set to get a cinema re-release featuring unseen footage. According to TheWrap, the studio is currently preparing this fresh outing on the big screen, with the chance to see sequences cut in the edit, including an appearance by Rosario Dawson as Claire Temple, which was dropped from the final cut, as you'll recall. Enough to rake in a few extra million.
