.png){kind=logo}
According to Marvel executive Andy Park, Black Widow's outfit in Avengers: Infinity War has a deeper meaning that will be revealed in her 2021 solo picture. Avengers: Infinity War was released in 2018 as the first installment of the Infinity Saga, which has been growing since Phase 1 of the MCU. The titular trio would return the following year in Avengers: Endgame, with Black Widow eventually sacrificing herself in order to defeat Thanos. However, Johansson's character would reappear in Black Widow, a prequel in which she teamed up with her sister, Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh).
In the recently-released Marvel's Black Widow: The Art of the Movie (via The Direct), Park, Marvel's Director of Visual Development, reveals that Natasha's suit in Avengers: Infinity War was retroactively given more meaning in Black Widow. Park reveals that, during development on the latter film, it was decided that Yelena would wear Black Widow's black tactical vest, affirming that Natasha actually got the item from her sister and thus giving it more significance.
"Working on 'Black Widow', we retroactively gave that vest meaning — that it’s actually Yelena’s vest. If you ever watch Infinity War again, your eyes will get watery because Natasha’s wearing her sister’s vest, and there’s love in there. That’s what we do as concept artists, because we’re all storytellers.
"When I first designed Natasha in 'Infinity War', the Russo brothers didn’t want her to have a whole new suit. They wanted to take her existing suit from Captain America: Civil War and add something to it. When I came up with the tactical vest, they liked that idea, so that’s what stuck.
"Her look has stayed fairly similar in her various appearances, so a lot of it is playing with details — different lines and materials … I did versions where she’s just wearing a jacket and other types of everyday clothing, and that’s where I started to think that incorporating the vest we see in 'Avengers: Infinity War' might be a good idea.
"With Yelena’s snowsuit design, I did a lot of versions. I had played with incorporating the vest from Avengers: Infinity War into Natasha’s design, but I had the idea that, maybe, what if it’s Yelena’s vest? I presented that idea and the designs I was playing with, and it worked really well with the white suit. And, of course, the vest became a thing."
What's Next For Yelena In The MCU?
Phase 4 of the MCU, in many ways, has had a strong focus on passing the torch from an older generation of heroes to a younger generation. Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld) has been established as Hawkeye's (Jeremy Renner) protégé, Ironheart (Dominique Thorne) serves the MCU's Iron Man replacement, and Yelena is, essentially, the new Black Widow. Outside of her role in Black Widow, Yelena also appeared as an antagonist in Hawkeye in 2021, but she's been absent from the MCU ever since. Pugh's antihero is slated to play a much more important role moving forward, however, due to one Phase 5 movie, in particular.
Thunderbolts, which is slated to be released in the summer of next year, will see Yelena join a team of Marvel's most formidable antiheroes, including the Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan), Red Guardian (David Harbour), U.S. Agent/ John Walker (Wyatt Russell, Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko), and Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen). The titular team is to be led by Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus). Details are forthcoming regarding Thunderbolts, but the project is expected to start filming during the first half of 2023. Outside of her role in Thunderbolts, Yelena's future in the MCU is much less certain.
As the new Black Widow, it's very likely that Yelena will also appear in one or both of the upcoming Avengers movies. Avengers: The Kang Dynasty is expected to be released in 2025 and Avengers: Secret Wars a year later in 2026, and, while plot details for the films remain under wraps, it certainly seems like the titular team of heroes will need Yelena's unique set of skills in order to defeat Jonathan Major's Kang and any other villains that will be thrown into the mix. While Johansson's Black Widow remains a high point of the earlier era of the MCU, the character will live on, in many ways, through Pugh's Yelena and whatever adventures are to come for her.
