If it feels like Marvel fans have been waiting an eternity for Scarlett Johansson to get a Black Widow movie… well, that’s accurate. Even before the official Black Widow movie suffered a string of delays thanks to theaters not being ready to host huge crowds, there was talk among the dedicated MCU audience that this Avenger deserved her own film, while Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Captain America (Chris Evans) and Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) were getting origin stories and sequels. Natasha Romanoff has meant a lot to the MCU, and Scarlett Johansson just dropped a video with visual reminders of the character’s influence. Watch it above.
Scarlett Johansson virtually is a found member of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, joining the fray in the third official MCU movie when she’s tasked by Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) to get closer to Tony Stark. From that point on, Natahsha was an integral figure, as the above video explains, tossing her into the Battle of New York from The Avengers, the battle at Sokovia (Avengers: Age of Ultron) and the ensuing fallout (Captain America: Civil War), and the war against Thanos… which cost Black Widow her life.
And now that she’s dead, she gets her own movie!
OK, Marvel has done series set in the past before. But this is the first time that we will get a prequel for an existing character (and one that’s dead), so it lowers the stakes on Black Widow a tad. We know that Natasha (Scarlett Johansson) will survive her deadly encounter with Taskmaster in this movie. But we’re also assuming that Black Widow -- almost like the Disney+ shows have been doing -- will introduce a handful of interesting characters that can continue to populate the universe for years to come.
Taskmaster could be one of those characters. The villain’s ability to mimic any power that he observes is remarkable, and he’d be a worthy adversary for other Marvel heroes.
Also, look out for Florence Pugh’s Yelena, Natasha’s sister who’s also a trained assassin and could end up taking the Widow role now that Black Widow is at the bottom of a ravine on Vormir.
After you have consumed that cool new montage of Black Widow’s greatest hits in the MCU, watch the latest trailer for Black Widow:
And then strap yourself in for the movie, which finally is coming to theaters and arriving on Disney+ (through their Premium offering) on July 9. This is Marvel Studios’ first film in the company’s Phase Four, which officially began on television with WandaVision. We still have three more Marvel movies coming in 2021 -- Shang-chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Eternals, and Spider-Man: No Way Home -- so make sure you have our guide to Upcoming Marvel Movies bookmarked and are checking it often.
