It’s no secret that the studio has struggled to find its footing post-Endgame. Shows like WandaVision and Loki were hits with critics and fans alike, but other projects didn’t land as well (we’re looking at you, Secret Invasion, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, and Captain America: Brave New World). There have also been a slew of post-credits scenes that haven’t amounted to anything. Remember when Harry Styles popped up as Thanos’ brother Eros in Eternals, and Brett Goldstein appeared as Hercules in Thor: Love and Thunder? Marvel has finally learned a seemingly obvious lesson—that quality is better than quantity—and is slowing its output. The studio recently canceled Wonder Man (despite strong retention rates) and killed Daredevil: Born Again after its upcoming third season. Feige also told Empire that no new MCU film will be released between Doomsday and Secret Wars, in theaters on December 17, 2027. That means that for once, Marvel fans won’t have any homework to do between the two movies.
Through all this, Pugh has been an unstoppable, welcome addition to the MCU since her arrival in the 2021 movie Black Widow (a standalone film that was too little too late, since Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow had already been killed off by then). Then she reprised her role as Yelena in the limited series Hawkeye and in the refreshingly earnest, grounded 2025 movie Thunderbolts, which introduced a misfit group of antiheroes now known as the New Avengers. And over the summer, she was a scene-stealer in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, providing some comedic relief and connective tissue between the Spidey adventure and the larger MCU. Yelena and characters from across the sprawling universe will team up against Robert Downey Jr.’s Doctor Doom in Doomsday this December—big potatoes stuff, as the assassin would say.
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