Pranav Birje | Senior Correspondent
Florence Pugh made her MCU debut with Black Widow (2021) featuring alongside Scarlett Johansson. She was introduced as the heir apparent to Scarlett’s outgoing Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow.
Johansson’s long-overdue solo movie was then meant to shed light on Natasha and Yelena’s origin story and also pass the torch to Pugh’s adoptive sister character. In the early ‘90s, they spent three years together in Ohio, posing as the daughters of Alexei Shostakov (Harbour) and Melina Vostokoff (Rachel Weisz). One day, their undercover mission was abruptly completed, resulting in the two young girls being shuttled off to the Red Room’s Black Widow Program.
With Pugh positioned as the lead of the Thunderbolts ensemble, she acknowledges Johansson’s hand in her MCU ascent and how much she misses her presence on set.
During the global promotions of Thunderbolts, Pugh said, “My whole journey with Marvel was because of Scarlett trusting me and Scarlett wanting me to join her movie [Black Widow] six years ago. So I always miss her presence, and I always feel like it was such a mean thing to begin the journey with someone and then you never get to work with them again on it. It was kind of wild that [Black Widow] was the first and the last time I would get to experience this world with her. But I am genuinely always just hoping that she’s proud. I always have that in the back of my head, like, “Oh, I hope she’s happy that we came in.” So I do miss her a lot on set, yes. We would have a lot of laughter.”
Marvel Studios’ Thunderbolts coming in theatres near you on May 1 in English, Hindi, Tamil, and Telugu._
Florence Pugh admits that she missed Scarlett Johansson on the sets of Thunderbolts: I always miss her presence
