It’s been several months now without any new material from the Marvel Cinematic Universe in one of their longest droughts without any projects being produced. Luckily, to satiate fans for a little while until the actual movie comes out, Marvel went ahead and dropped the very first teaser trailer for Black Widow.
Scarlett Johansson’s character was one of the few who met their end by the conclusion of Avengers: Endgame, but the most successful film franchise in history found a way to bring her back for one last go-around before she hangs up her widow’s bite for good. But while audiences wait for the prequel to hit theaters, here are 10 things that we learned from the first trailer (warning - this list contains potential spoilers)
It takes place between Civil War & Infinity War
To be fair, the teaser trailer was only two minutes long with a solid thirty seconds of flashback footage in the beginning meaning some of these are going to just be speculation, so let’s get the things that we officially know out of the way first, starting with the time period.
Audiences have known for a while that the movie would be a prequel, but it’s now been confirmed that the movie will be set some time in between the events of Civil War and Infinity War - which honestly threw some fans for a loop because it was always speculated that Widow simply made her way to Cap after helping him escape during the airport scene.
Sergeant Ross will make an appearance
That’s right; the big, bad government official who still considered Captain America a criminal even after half the universe got snapped is going to show up for at least one scene in the movie.
However, it’s definitely not how fans were expecting to see him, with the trailer showing a brief shot of a clearly de-aged Ross standing in what seems to be a foreign country. Let’s hope that the trailer is a work-in-process shot because the CGI used to make Ross look younger was already noticeably worse than the previous times the MCU has used the de-aging tactic.
Florence Pugh plays Yelena Belova
It was naturally reported when actress Florence Pugh was cast for the film, but as is the usual case with Marvel, details about her character were kept under wraps. Now, thanks to her heavily featured character in the trailer, audiences know that she’ll be playing Yelena Belova, a fellow Black Widow who was trained in the Red Room along with Natasha. Slight inquiry, though - Pugh is twelve years younger than Johansson, but the trailer made it seem as though they were in training at the same time. Hopefully, the movie clears that up a bit.
The Red Guardian, Taskmaster, White-Widow suits look bad-ass
All jokes aside, these suits looked in-freaking-sane. For a decade now, Black Widow has made appearances in eight of the MCU’s films, and while her suit has made gradual and subtle changes, the color has always remained the same - black, black, and more black. But fans finally got a glimpse of the Black Widow sporting an all-white super-suit and it looked amazing.
As if that weren’t enough, Red Guardian was basically a carbon-copy of Captain America’s suit (only now in Russian form) and Taskmaster is the deadliest looking villain since Killmonger. One more time: in-freaking-sane.
It’s a spy thriller
Call this an obvious confirmation if you want too, but with the MCU it’s always a toss-up (Ragnarok is supposed to mean the end of all things and that was the funniest Thor yet). However, the trailer absolutely confirmed that this standalone prequel is going to be a balls-to-the-wall, action-packed spy-thriller and there isn’t a single audience member complaining.
Every shot of the trailer made fans feel like they were watching a James Bond or Jason Bourne movie, and since Black Widow could take either of those two on their best days, it’s safe to say we’re looking forward to what she does now that she’s got the lead.
Black Widow’s going to take down the Red Room
We’re starting to get into the “speculation” aspects of the trailer so one last warning of potential spoilers ahead. Let’s start with the one that’s the least bit speculation because Black Widow literally says in the trailer, “we have to go back to where it all started,” to her Black Widow sister, Yelena.
It hasn’t been confirmed or denied yet, but since both of these women were trained in the Red Room together it’s safe to assume that “where it all started” means where the two of them began their training. Also, it’s been reported that Taskmaster isn’t the official villain of the film, so the operators of the Red Room certainly fit the bill for that role.
It Looks A Lot Like Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Just to clarify, this isn’t a bad thing. In fact, it’s an incredibly wonderful thing since Captain America: The Winter Soldier is still considered one of the best MCU films to date. But something that the trailer made crystal clear is that while this may be Black Widow’s film, she’s certainly not going to be taking down the bad guys alone.
In one of the biggest confirmation shots of the trailer, Black Widow sits around a dinner table with Yelena Belova, Red Guardian, and Rachel Weisz’s yet-to-be-named character. The misfit family was almost identical to the mini-team of Cap, Black Widow, Falcon, and Agent Hill in The Winter Soldier.
It should have come out during Phase 3
As we stated earlier, the fact that this movie is set in between Civil War and Infinity War was a little confusing. The main reason, again, was that audiences speculated that Widow simply made her way to Cap once deserting from the airport battle. The second, more troubling reason is that the time period of the film was set during the middle of Phase 3 - so why exactly couldn’t the movie have come out then?
Some might argue that there wasn’t exactly a spot that Marvel could fit the movie in, but we’d argue that the Black Widow movie could have just as easily taken over the Captain Marvel slate, and it honestly would’ve made way more sense.
Rachel Weisz is probably the real villain
There was virtually nothing about Rachel Weisz’s still unnamed character in the trailer and fans are speculating that it’s because she’s going to turn out to be some sort of double-agent or betray the Black Widows in some form or fashion.
Once again, it’s already been reported that Taskmaster isn’t the official villain of the film, and with the backed-up information that Widow is most likely going to be trying to take down the Red Room, it makes sense that somebody involved with the Red Room program might try to bring Natasha and her team down from the inside.
Red Guardian & Yelena Belova will probably die
This one is nothing but pure guessing on our part, but honestly, if anybody other than Natasha makes it out of this film alive then there’s going to be some massive continuity errors involving that epic final battle in Avengers: Endgame. In case you’re still not following us, we’ll spell it out for you : when the Avengers reversed ’the snap’, Doctor Strange and his magician friends brought in absolutely every possible fighter to take on Thanos for the final battle.
That means if Yelena Belova and Red Guardian make it out of this movie alive, why weren’t they called on to help fight against Thanos? Sorry to burst anybody’s bubble who hadn’t pieced this one together, but we’re probably looking at some more dead heroes.
