WARNING: The following contains potential spoilers for Hawkeye, now streaming on Disney+.
A new promo for Marvel's Hawkeye series on Disney+ teased the first look at Florence Pugh's Yelena Belova as the new Black Widow.
The teaser, titled "Hit the Mark," briefly showcased a mysterious, masked character, to which Hailee Steinfeld's Kate Bishop asked, "Who's that?" Though the character's face was not shown, the all-black ensemble paired with the green night-vision goggles looks very similar to Yelena Belova's comic-book costume, which also featured an all-black look, including a mask with bright green, spider-like lenses over the eyes.
Fans have been anticipating Yelena Belova's appearance in Hawkeye, with excitement for her arrival causing "Yelena" to trend on Twitter following the third episode of the Disney+ series, "Echoes." Introduced to the Marvel Cinematic Universe in Black Widow, it was previously confirmed that Pugh would reprise the role in Hawkeye, though it is unclear which episode exactly she will appear in.
It is also unclear what Yelena's story will entail within the series. However, Clint Barton was assigned to Yelena as her next target in the post-credit scene for Black Widow by Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus), who told Yelena that Clint was responsible for her sister's death.
The first season of Hawkeye will consist of six, hour-long episodes, though the series was originally intended to be a spinoff feature film exploring Jeremy Renner's Avenger in depth. However, with the inclusion of the Battle of New York at the start of the series, the introduction of new villains to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the relationship between Clint and Kate, and now the possible re-introduction of Yelena Belova, the story was deemed too big for a solo film alone.
"The big question was, 'How are we going to fit all of this into a two-hour timeframe?' We have an Avenger whose backstory we haven’t quite had time to explore yet," Hawkeye producer Trinh Tran said in a previous interview. "We also have to introduce a new character [Steinfeld's Kate Bishop], as well as allow enough time for them to bond and create that special dynamic that everybody finds so appealing in the comics. So, in moving it over, it allowed us six hours, three times as much time, which really gave us the creative flexibility we needed to tell the story."
New episodes of Hawkeye air every Wednesday on Disney+.
Source: YouTube