While Thunderbolts* continues to storm through theaters, co-screenwriter Eric Pearson recently revealed that an early draft of the film nearly gave fans a direct continuation of Yelena Belova’s unresolved beef with Clint Barton, a thread left hanging since Hawkeye on Disney+.
If you’ll recall, the Black Widow post-credits scene set Yelena (Florence Pugh) on a collision course with Clint Barton (Jeremy Renner), thanks to a manipulative nudge from Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus).
She essentially blamed Barton for Natasha Romanoff’s death and pointed Yelena at him like a loaded weapon. Fast-forward to Hawkeye, and that mission ended in a rooftop fight and an emotional truth bomb, with Yelena ultimately sparing Barton and walking away from the assignment.
But what happened after that? According to Pearson, the original script for Thunderbolts* had an answer.
“Early drafts began with Yelena confronting Valentina about ordering the Clint Barton hit, which was one of my favorite scenes that eventually became not entirely relevant to the Thunderbolts* story.”
Pearson says he loved the scene because it showed just how calculating Val can be, which is a trait fans have only seen in glimpses. In this version, Yelena directly calls her out for manipulating her into nearly killing her sister’s best friend. And Val? She doesn’t deny it. She says in the scene:
“So I heard some bad gossip, pardon me for trying to motivate you. But this is your job, and asking questions isn’t a part of it.”
That chillingly casual brush-off from Val would’ve added a bit more texture to their tense relationship and to Val’s shady leadership style. But Pearson explained that the sequence just didn’t fit the evolving structure of the movie, even though it packed an emotional punch.
The exchange would’ve also served as a major turning point for Yelena. According to Pearson, the confrontation ended with her voicing dissatisfaction about the direction of her life and expressing a desire to do something more meaningful.
While that exact version of the moment didn’t make the final cut, some of the concept did survive. In the finished film, Yelena still seeks change. After agreeing to a mission, she asks Val for something with more visibility, a “public facing” role.
Val obliges… but with a cruel twist as behind the scenes, she’s orchestrating a kill-or-be-killed scenario for her operatives, including Yelena.
Source: THR
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