Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh) doesn't appear in the MCU Phase 3 events set after Black Widow, but that doesn't mean she died in Thanos' Avengers: Infinity War snap. Black Widow's timeline, set during Captain America: Civil War's ending, raises some big questions about where its characters are afterward. While it's known that Yelena will return in Hawkeye, it's not so clear what happened to her, Red Guardian (David Harbour), or Melina Vostokoff (Rachel Weisz) after Black Widow but prior to Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame.
Of course, in real world terms this is simply because Marvel hadn't yet introduced those characters when the Avengers movies were being made, but what about in-universe? A neat solution could be to reveal that they were victims of Thanos' snap. Since Black Widow's ending sets up Avengers: Infinity War, then it'd be an easy way to explain why there's no mention of or appearance from Natasha Romanoff's (Scarlett Johansson) Russian family. At the same time, though, that doesn't fully satisfy everything, especially where Yelena's MCU future is concerned.
The key evidence in the theory that Yelena didn't die in Avengers: Infinity War is her relationship with Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), which is revealed in Black Widow's post-credits scenes, set after Natasha's death in Endgame. It's not revealed just how long as passed, but presumably it's been a few months at most. Val also appeared in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, which was six months after Endgame; her cameo in Black Widow was supposed to come first, so it's reasonable to assume it's even earlier. This means it's more likely she survived the Snap, otherwise it means that much of Yelena's story and working relationship with Val is squeezed into a rather tight time frame which, while not impossible, doesn't seem quite as plausible.
Even assuming that Black Widow's post-credits scene is a good few months after Avengers: Endgame, the implication is that Yelena and Val have been working together for quite some time (not least because she's on "holiday"). If she were dusted by Thanos, then it'd mean she was brought back, almost immediately found and recruited by Val, and then carried out a few missions for her being taking a break to visit Nat's memorial. Again, it's not implausible, but it does seem like a stretch. It's also not impossible that Yelena was recruited by Val before the Snap, was dusted, and then continued on from where she left off, but it would arguably make more sense for Val's operations to be something that started in the wake of the Snap and the world being thrown into chaos.
The simplest explanation, then, is that Yelena was not killed in Avengers: Infinity War, and sometime after the Snap was recruited by Val, giving more time for their relationship to develop. Kevin Feige has said Marvel will reveal whether Yelena was dusted by Thanos or not, and having her survive would give them greater storytelling potential for the character, because it means not cutting off a five-year period of her life. Having Yelena die might give an easier answer for her being missing in Avengers: Endgame, but her living, and explaining what she did in that time and why she never joined the fight alongside her sister after Black Widow, could be far more interesting.
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