I t has been four years since Florence Pugh made her debut appearance in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, in 2021’s Black Widow, where she played Yelena Belova, the stealth agent

The movie opens on a morose note, as Florence Pugh ’s weary assassin Yelena explains in voiceover that she feels deadened by the loss of her sister ( Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow) and the empty routine of her life.

“Thunderbolts,” about a group of MCU rejects who band together after CIA director Valentine Allegra de Fontaine ( Julia Louis-Dreyfus ) tries to erase them and their covert program, is both a return to form for Marvel and something a little different. While there’s plenty of franchise building going on, “Thunderbolts” is pleasantly standalone.