Very mild spoilers ahead for Captain America: Civil War. If you’d like to go into the movie completely surprised, you may want to check out one of our other great stories on the movie instead.
We’re just a week away from finally being able to feast our eyes upon the superhero romp Captain America: Civil War. Anticipation for the third Captain America film has been steadily building since the first trailer was released. It seem that all of the Marvel Cinematic Universe has lead to this film, with almost all of the heroes in the franchise picking a side and fighting amongst themselves. While some of the heroes’ motivations seem clear, others are a bit more confusing. One of these more ambiguous characters is Black Widow, who surprisingly is siding with Team Iron Man for the main conflict.
Comicbook.com recently caught up with one of Captain America: Civil War’s executive producers, Nate Moore, who opened up regarding why Scarlett Johansson’s character ends up siding with Tony Stark, rather than her buddy Steve Rogers.
...Black Widow teaming with Iron Man. I think it was unexpected even for us but as we talked about it from a storytelling point of view, it really made sense because I think Black Widow is more pragmatic than we give her credit for. And sometimes she's looking at the solutions from a different angle than Tony Stark, who's very emotional. Even though they don't react to the same things, in the same way, their conclusion that they came to ended up being the same. So it really was talking each character through like that to figure out who would end up where.
This does seem to make a great deal of sense. Black Widow must have carefully weighed out all options and sides before deciding to join Team Iron Man. She doesn’t have fancy suits or superpowers to hide behind, she only has her pragmatic mind, moral compass, and kickass fighting skills.
I also think that Black Widow’s guilt and morality played a part in her going with the pro-registration side of the Civil War. We’ve seen Natasha struggle with her dark past, especially through in the dream sequence in Age of Ultron, as well as her conversations with Steve Rogers in Captain America: Winter Soldier. She struggles with the sins of her old life, and so rebelling against the government in Civil War would be putting her once again in a morally grey area.
Of course, all will be revealed when Captain America: Civil War finally flies, blasts, and punches its way into theaters on May 6th.
