Ever since Natasha Romanoff entered the Marvel Cinematic Universe, several cosplayers have replicated her look, some quite accurately. But, with the release of Black Widow in July, the focus seems to have changed to Romanoff’s sister Yelena Belova. In the past few weeks, many cosplayers have worked on bringing Yelena’s look to life, but one of them caught the attention of the team behind Marvel Becoming.
Danielle Kane, who goes by @khaleesidani on Instagram, is the chosen one to represent all the Yelena Belova cosplayers in their latest episode. It turns out that Kane also began her cosplay journey by putting on the Black Widow costume, but Yelena’s “badass” nature despite having a difficult past got her to switch teams.
In the episode of Marvel Becoming, Kane reveals that she likes to pick characters who are “in the grey,” not entirely good nor bad. She believes this represents that they are human and that “they make mistakes and don’t always do the right things,” which allows her to relate to them even more. “The characters I cosplay are also usually strong women,” cosplayer Kane is heard saying in the video, which isn’t surprising since her first cosplay costume was of Romanoff.
It is revealed in the episode that Kane worked alongside another cosplayer named Lauren, who has been working on creating the best Romanoff looks on her Instagram @maryjaneromanoff. With all her experience in the past, Lauren was able to share useful information about sourcing all the items needed to create Yelena’s suit, especially her iconic vest from Black Widow. The two are representing the sisters from Black Widow in the Marvel Becoming docuseries.
In bringing Yelena’s costume together, Kane states that her cosplay skills have improved. She learned a lot along the way and is now ready to help any other cosplayers who require assistance with their Marvel suits. It seems like cosplayers around the world are constantly working together. Kane confirms that the Black Widow cosplay community, which is essentially trying to bring Romanoff and Yelena looks to life, is helping each other to be “the best Black Widow that they can be.”
The concept behind Marvel Becoming, which has its own YouTube channel, is to offer cosplayers an opportunity to share their stories about what inspires them. It takes viewers on a behind-the-scenes journey of how the cosplayers bring the different Marvel characters, like Loki's Mobius M. Mobius, to life and offers a look at their craftsmanship. The various videos uploaded on their channel are shot in documentary style, where the cosplayers are interviewed about their work, overlapped with clips of them working to put together the perfect costume.
Black Widow is out in theaters and streaming exclusively on Disney Plus.
Source: Marvel Entertainment/YouTube