Saoirse Ronan addresses being offered the role of Yelena in ‘Black Widow’

Marvel fans could’ve very nearly seen Saoirse Ronan break out her best fighting pose in Black Widow.

During a recent Happy Sad Confused interview, the Blitz actress was asked by host Josh Horowitz if she’d ever been in the running to star as Yelena Belova — the younger sister of Scarlett Johansson’s Natasha Romanoff — in the 2021 film. The role ultimately went to Ronan’s Little Women costar, Florence Pugh.

“Were you offered Yelena? Did you almost play Yelena in Black Widow?” Horowitz asked. “The Florence Pugh role in the Marvel Universe? Was that a discussion?”

Ronan paused. “Um,” she said. “How did you hear about that?”

When Horowitz noted that the casting rumor had been out there in the world for some time, Ronan kept her answer short and sweet: “I don’t know.”

Her coy comment, naturally, made Horowitz burst into laughter. “Okay. I’ll take that that non-answer as an answer,” he remarked, before Ronan herself began laughing. “But you have nothing against the Marvel stuff?”

“I can’t see myself doing Marvel,” she confessed. “I don’t… No, I would prefer to do Bond.”

However, Ronan is interested in starring in a tentpole film or franchise like the MCU in the future.

“There’s nothing wrong with [Marvel] and I think they’re brilliant films. I want to do more big movies,” she said. “I’m at the point where I’ve done… I love making independent film, I really do, but to know — especially in this landscape that we’re in, in film right now — to know that a film is going to be seen is such a luxury.”

Ronan said she came to the realization after seeing Little Women writer-director Greta Gerwig’s Barbie last year. “I wanna do that! Of course I want to do that stuff,” she added. “I like big shows and I want to be in a musical and I want to do all that.”

After her first appearance in Black Widow, Pugh has gone on to reprise her role as Yelena in the Disney+ series Hawkeye and is set to go toe-to-toe with some of Marvel’s best morally grey superheroes in the upcoming film, The Thunderbolts*.

Watch Ronan talk her way out of answering the casting question in the clip above.