The trailer for Marvel’s Black Widow is hiding the timeframe of the movie, but it’s not clear why. Directed by Cate Shortland, Black Widow stars Scarlet Johansson in her first solo outside as Natasha Romanoff. The movie is the first film on Marvel’s Phase 4 slate, and is slated for a May 2020 release.
This week, the first Black Widow trailer was released, which shows Natasha revisiting her past and meeting several Marvel Comics characters, including the second Black Widow, Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), David Harbour’s Alexei Shostakov in-costume as the Red Guardian, and the villain of the movie, Taskmaster, whose true identity remains a mystery. The movie also introduces a third Black Widow, Rachel Weisz’s Melina.
It’s no secret that Black Widow’s first solo film takes place between Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War. Because of Natasha’s decision to betray Tony Stark and help Steve Rogers escape, Natasha ended up becoming a fugitive like Captain America, Falcon, Winter Soldier, Scarlet Witch, Hawkeye, and Ant-Man. The D23 footage showed a conversation between Black Widow and Iron Man that occurred during the events of Captain America: Civil War, which indicates that Black Widow picks up where Civil War left off with Natasha. So while the setting is already known, audiences wouldn’t learn that information from the Black Widow trailer.
The trailer shows footage from previous films in the MCU, such as The Avengers, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and dialogue from her final film, Avengers: Endgame. The inclusion of dialogue from Endgame is an interesting choice, especially since Endgame occurs years after Black Widow. In Avengers: Endgame, Black Widow died sacrificing herself on Vormir so that Hawkeye could obtain the Soul Stone from the Red Skull. This was the end of Natasha’s story in the MCU, so it’s obvious that any solo movie about Black Widow can only be a prequel.
When it became apparent that Marvel was working on a Black Widow movie, it was assumed by many that it would be an origin story that took place prior to her MCU introduction in Iron Man 2, but this isn’t the case here. Instead, Marvel is choosing to tell a much different story, even though her past (and her family) will still be a big part of it. Since Avengers: Infinity War took place two years after Captain America: Civil War, that gives Black Widow a large window to work with, and it allows them an opportunity to show Black Widow as someone who has no choice but to operate outside the law.
More: Black Widow Trailer Proves The Movie Is Years Too Late
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