Black Widow star, Florence Pugh, revealed the real-life origins of Yelena Belova’s joke mocking Natasha Romanoff’s signature fighting pose. After years of anticipation and delays due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Scarlett Johansson’s first MCU solo outing is just around the corner, releasing July 9 in theaters with the option to stream on Disney+ Premier Access. Johansson’s first appearance as Black Widow came in 2010’s Iron Man 2 and now, a decade later, she will bid farewell to the role.

Directed by Cate Shortland, Black Widow will kick off Marvel’s Phase 4 by introducing Romanoff’s Russian family, including Pugh’s Yelena, a sister-figure to Natasha who trained with her at the Red Room Academy as a Black Widow. The film will also reunite Romanoff with her former cohorts, Melina Vostokoff (Rachel Weisz) and Alexei Shostakov, also known as The Red Guardian (David Harbour). The camaraderie between these four has been a focal point of a few trailers and clips thus far, and now the Black Widow star is revealing the inspiration behind one of the film’s friendly ribbings.

Related: Who Is Yelena Belova? Florence Pugh's Black Widow Character Explained

In an interview with THR, Florence Pugh revealed the real-life origins behind Yelena’s good-natured teasing of Natasha for her signature pose during fights. It turns out, this detail was a last-minute addition to the script after Pugh teased Scarlett on set for her character's “ridiculous” pose. Pugh recounted the experience below:

I remember the stunt team was like, “So Florence, what are we going to do about your pose?” And I was like, “Oh God, I have to think about a pose!?” And they were like, “Yeah, because you know Scarlett’s is this.” And I was like, “I know! Who would actually land like that? That’s ridiculous!” And they were like, “Well, yeah. If she actually landed like that, she would have broken her spine.” And I remember I was just teasing [Scarlett] for it, and Eric [Pearson], the writer, was on set and was like, “Yep, that’s going in the script!”

Natasha and Yelena riding a bike in Black Widow

A Black Widow clip that premiered during Pugh’s recent appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! showed Yelena teasing Natasha for her pose, which will apparently be a running gag throughout the film. While the two are known to be rivals in Marvel’s comics, Black Widow seems to be depicting more of a sisterly dynamic between Yelena and Natasha, which friendly mockery is a major part of.

This dynamic appears to extend to Pugh and Johansson’s relationship as well, considering that Pugh’s joking on set was actually the inspiration for a running gag within the film’s universe. Natasha and Yelena’s sisterly roots appear to go all the way back to their time together as children at the Red Room Academy when Nat often played the role of Yelena's older sister and protected her from danger. This dynamic is set to play out in Black Widow.

Next: Black Widow’s Complete MCU Timeline Explained

Source: THR

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