Marvel fans might not have to say goodbye to Black Widow in 2020 after all
By Meg Dowell
It’s possible we won’t have to say goodbye to Black Widow after all — at least, if the MCU stays true to its comic roots.
There is a lot we don’t know about Natasha Romanoff’s past.
Well, if you consider yourself a Marvel Comica connoisseur, you likely know more than the average Marvel Cinematic Universe viewer when it comes to the origins and various storylines of a number of longtime heroes, including Black Widow.
But from what we’ve been shown onscreen in the MCU thus far, we know only fragments of details about Nat’s life before joining the Avengers. She first entered the franchise in Iron Man 2, and most of us either didn’t expect or weren’t prepared to watch her die in Avengers: Endgame.
Leave it to Marvel Studios to give us the chance to hold onto Black Widow as we know her for at least one more movie. We’re definitely still going to have to say goodbye (for good) … but not quite yet.
The upcoming Black Widow movie is said to take place after the events of Captain America: Civil War. There could be a series of flashbacks (and flash-forwards) throughout; we really aren’t sure yet.
But based on the teaser trailer released yesterday, we do know one thing for sure: Nat does have a family (of sorts). And we’re about to meet them all.
Watch the teaser trailer for Black Widow here:
One “sister” of interest is none other than Florence Pugh’s Yelena Belova. If you’ve only seen the movies and haven’t gone too deeply into the comic history of these characters, you might not recognize that name. But it’s possible Yelena could soon go by a name we’re all very familiar with: Black Widow.
Yes, there might be another Black Widow joining the post-Endgame Avengers (or going on epic spy missions of her own, or both, who knows?).
And while that may seem to some like a cheap way to keep the character without Scarlett Johansson, the move would actually follow a storyline from the comics in which Yelena set out to claim the title of Black Widow after Nat joined the Avengers.
Marvel Studios has plenty of freedom to adapt these stories, and they will definitely use it here. Yelena could end up replacing Nat as an Avenger in future films, which would do wonders to explain why this character is getting her debut solo movie after she dies.
But we don’t know enough about the MCU version of Yelena Belova to be able to predict whether she will use the Black Widow persona in any way. She and Nat obviously have a lot of baggage to work through in just one movie (there are no known plans for a sequel at this time), so it’s certainly going to be a journey.
Regardless of the future of Yelena as a character in the MCU — she might not make it out of this movie alive, for all we know at this point — it’s going to be nice to get the Natasha Romanoff closure we deserve. After all that pain and heartbreak, we get to see Johansson portray her character one last time … which will be painful and heartbreaking as well, but at least we have sufficient warning to prepare ourselves this time.
Do the Avengers need another Black Widow to replace Nat? Not necessarily. But they’re going to lose Spider-Man sooner than they probably planned, so the timing might be just right.
Next. Marvel’s Black Widow movie is five years too late. dark