Was Black Widow's post-credit scene between Yelena Belova and Clint Barton a secret for the Hawkeye team?

Marvel fans saw it coming that Florence Pugh would appear as Yelena Belova in Hawkeye. And she did make a kickass entry in the latest episode of the series. However, as per the latest reports in The Hollywood Reporter, the post-credit scene of Black Widow included a surprise for the audience, which even the Hawkeye writing staff was unaware of at first. Yelena was thrown on the trail of Jeremy Renner's Clint Barton, aka Hawkeye, in the mid-credits scene of Black Widow.

After head writer Jonathan Igla lobbied to include Yelena in the series, the Hawkeye team was already scripting her into it when Marvel inserted that sequence. Igla learned from Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige one day that Black Widow would feature a post-credit scene leading into Hawkeye, but he had to keep the information to himself to protect the secret as long as possible.

Igla told the international publication that he wasn't supposed to share it with the rest of the writing crew for a period of time. There were a few things like that that he found difficult. He revealed that he gave it all and prefers to think of himself as a trustworthy broker. The writer shared that if someone advises him not to reveal something, even if he thinks, "Well, the writing staff really needs to know this," he simply trusts their approach.

Secrecy turned out to be a two-way street. Eric Pearson, the screenwriter for Black Widow, was also kept in the dark about the scene's implications. He was instructed to write a scene in which Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) assigns Yelena the task of tracking down Barton, but he was not given any further instructions.

Pearson remembers writing it and feeling incredibly horrible. He hopes whomever the writer is working on for this next chapter is going to be OK with what he has done to them.

According to Igla, Pearson, on the other hand, has nothing to be ashamed of. The latter explained that he persuaded Kevin, Lou [D'Esposito], and Victoria [Alonso] that Yelena belonged in Hawkeye's story, and that this was the proper spot for her next chapter. 

Igla believes the scene was set up to encourage that. As soon as he received the thumbs up, the rest of the writing staff realised we were creating pitches around her.