Saoirse Ronan almost made it into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but she has no regrets about losing it. During her appearance on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, host Josh Horowitz inquired if she was approached to play Yelena – the younger sister of Scarlett Johansson’s Natasha Romanoff – in Black Widow. “Were you offered Yelena? Did you almost play Yelena in Black Widow?” Horowitz asked.
Ronan paused and asked, “How did you know about this?” When the host revealed that casting rumors had been going around for quite some time, the actress said that she was not aware of it. Hearing her hesitant response, Horowitz began laughing, saying that he would take her “non-answer” as an answer.
When asked if she was interested in entering the MCU, the Little Women actress said, “I can’t see myself doing Marvel. I don’t…no, I would love to do Bond.” However, she would love to be a part of a tentpole film or franchise like Marvel in the future. “There’s nothing wrong with (Marvel) and I think they’re great movies. I want to do bigger films,” she said.
Ronan is at a point in his life where he enjoys doing largely independent films. However, he admitted that it is a luxury to know that a franchise or film will be watched by people.
She is open to doing all kinds of films including musicals and the credit for this goes to her former director Greta Gerwig’s recent film Barbie. “I want to do that! “Definitely I want to do that,” Ronan said of the 2023 summer blockbuster. “I love big shows and I want to be involved in music and I want to do all that,” she said. Although she did not regret playing Yelena, she was heartbroken at not being able to play the eccentric Harry Potter character Luna Lovegood.
“There are things that you leave out and then they come out, and you think, ‘Oh my God, that was a misstep on my part,'” he said during his interview with Jimmy Kimmel. “But I think that’s what stuck with me over the years,” he said of losing the Harry Potter role.
As for Yelena, the role was eventually given to Florence Pugh. She reprized her role in the Disney+ series Hawkeye and returns with fellow morally gray superheroes in the upcoming film, The Thunderbolts, which is set to be released on May 2, 2025.