The mid-credits scene of Black Widow showed Valentina Fontaine approach Yelena Belova. Is she another addition to Yelena’s secret team?
Yelena Belova is the next Black Widow in the MCU or rather the one who dons the cape of Black Widow after Natasha Romanoff. However, things don’t seem usual as Valentina Fontaine (Louis-Dreyfus) approaches her instead of Nick Fury. And her intentions are clearly in the grey area keeping her past from the comics in mind.
The Debut of Valentina AKA Madam Hydra
The debut of Valentina Fontaine AKA Madam Hydra in the MCU was supposed to be via Black Widow. But then why did we see her first in TFATWS? Well, if you have been following the MCU updates, Black Widow was supposed to release before TFATWS. This could not happen due to the pandemic and thus there was a shift in the release dates.
According to Black Widow writer Eric Pearson, the mid-credit scene was indeed written and shot before filming Louis-Dreyfus’s role in TFATWS. Saying that Marvel has big plans for the character of Valentina Fontaine, Pearson stated, “I just know that they told me we have plans to introduce this character Valentina, and it’s going to be played by Julia Louis Dreyfus.”
Talking about the end credit scene she said, “I was like, I want Yelena and Valentina just back and forth, bouncing dialogue off of each other. And ultimately that’s never going to happen. You’re not going to have a full scene as a stinger at the end. So we went with the smaller version.”
I was just so excited to get those two actors together, to get those two character dynamics together. And I also love taking an emotional moment, like Yelena at the grave, and then flushing it down the toilet with Valentina blowing her nose.
Valentina Fontaine in the MCU
In the comics, Valentina Fontaine AKA Madam Hydra is the negative version of Nick Fury, who lies in a morally grey area. She is also Fury’s love interest which makes things even more complicated. As for the MCU, her moral compass is not yet clear.
We saw her recruit Wyatt Russel’s John Walker making him the US Agent. He was the first recruit of her team. Yelena is her second. The issue here is that neither is Yelena Belova bad nor is John Walker. However, Zemo is definitely a guy with bad intentions, and the way in which Fontaine set up Yelena to bring down Hawkeye, it is clear that she is too. She is likely gathering a team that will be the MCU version of the Thunderbolts. In the comics, the Thunderbolts is a team of superheroes or rather a team of reformed supervillains set up by Baron Zemo. The team doesn’t have US Agent though. On the contrary, he was asked to take the team down.
But the MCU is known to improvise upon the matter from the Marvel archives. So, we can expect that Baron Zemo (played by Daniel Brühl in the MCU) will also be a part of Fontaine’s team. We all know that he is alive and waiting to strike at the right moment.
Valentina Fontaine’s position is for now unclear. If the MCU follows the blueprint laid by the comics, she will become Madam Hydra who was trained in the same Soviet program as Natasha Romanoff AKA Black Widow.
Yelena Belova in Hawkeye
The reason for Yelena’s gullibility in the mid-credits scene can be that she was a victim of Thanos’ snap. She returned 5 years later only to find out that Natasha, who was no less than her sister, is dead. Maybe, she doesn’t know the true story of her sacrifice, or perhaps she is angry that Hawkeye did not force Nat out of her sacrifice.
The mention of Hawkeye by Fontaine to Yelena seals the news that Yelena will play a significant role in the upcoming Hawkeye series. She will not be the main villain but she will make Barton make a run for his money.
