Florence Pugh's Spider-Man: Brand New Day Cameo Explained - Why Yelena Belova Returns

This article contains spoilers for "Spider-Man: Brand New Day."

If there was one concern that emerged from the trailers for "Spider-Man: Brand New Day," it's that the movie might have too much going on. In addition to Peter Parker (Tom Holland) dealing with his spider powers growing out of control and the emotional turmoil of MJ (Zendaya) and Ned (Jacob Batalon) forgetting who he is, there was also the presence of The Punisher (Jon Bernthal), the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), the ninjas known as The Hand, and a mystery villain able to jump into people's minds. If that wasn't enough, Marvel Studios was hiding another Marvel Cinematic Universe character's appearance in the latest Spidey adventure.

Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), the reluctant Thunderbolts teammate turned New Avengers member, makes an appearance in "Spider-Man: Brand New Day." However, unlike many cameos in Marvel Studios movies throughout the run of The Multiverse Saga, Yelena's appearance offers more than a moment for fans to point and smile when she crosses paths with Spider-Man. In fact, Yelena's role in the movie, like all of the other aforementioned Marvel characters who have a part to play, manages to play a pivotal role in both the progression of the film's plot and Peter's emotional journey. 

In "Spider-Man: Brand New Day," the webslinger encounters a villain who can control the minds and bodies of pretty much anyone. When a tank tears through New York City, the person who drives it straight into a Damage Control detention center is a kind old woman who's confused about how she got there in the first place. That's when Peter witnesses this villain jumping from one body to another, trying to get close enough to the incarcerated villain Scorpion (Michael Mando) to release him for some unknown reason.

The unknown villain even tries jumping into Peter's mind, but they're unable to stay inside for very long, as Peter's superhuman abilities, which allowed him to sense the antagonist's presence to begin with, have made him resistant to such attacks. 

Having never dealt with this before, Peter goes to someone who has plenty of experience with a kind of mind control: Yelena Belova, who is in her new "office," a city bathhouse where she relaxes in a hot tub. Because of Yelena's history as a Black Widow, a trained assassin who endured brainwashing, he's wondering if she has any insight as to who might be behind these attacks. 

Unfortunately, Yelena doesn't have any helpful information, and she also tells Peter that it sounds like the problem he's dealing with is "small potatoes," and the New Avengers are concerned with much bigger potatoes. Even though Peter is ultimately and amusingly brushed off, his encounter does allow for Yelena to offer a bit of casual guidance to Peter in his distressed state.

Yelena sees that Peter is exhausted and understands that he mostly keeps to himself because he won't even take his mask off to join her in the hot tub. He strips down to his underwear, but he keeps the mask on. Yelena notes that he must be a pretty lonely spider, and she's not wrong.

What makes this more than a throwaway cameo is that Yelena is kind of the perfect person to make this observation about Peter. She's recently come off a period of her life where she tried to shut everybody out and focus only on her work, and we saw the fallout of her not letting anyone else into her life in "Thunderbolts*." Yelena knows all too well the struggle that Peter is going through, and she recognizes that as soon as he strolls into her office. 

Peter eventually gets back in contact with Yelena a second time but only over video chat. After learning that the mysterious villain he's been encountering among the citizens of New York City is none other than the telepathic mutant and future X-Men member Jean Grey, he asks Yelena to look up anything that might be helpful, including the meaning of "V-Max," something that Jean revealed that she's looking for. What Yelena learns is that Damage Control scrubbed the internet of Jean's existence, which leads to even more questions that ultimately reveal the true story behind the mutants' morally questionable but understandable efforts. 

On top of her integral part in "Brand New Day," this meeting between Yelena and Peter establishes a relationship between Spidey and the New Avengers, doing a bit of background-building as we head into the one-two punch that will be "Avengers: Doomsday" and "Avengers: Secret Wars." 

"Spider-Man: Brand New Day" is in theaters now.