What with her being a superspy and all, it made some degree of sense that the MCU’s rendition of Black Widow would remain entrenched in mystery for so long. But after 11 years and 23 films (seven of which feature her character prominently), Scarlett Johansson’s Natasha Romanoff is long overdue for the caliber of exploration that the lot of her costars have thus far enjoyed. Almost exactly one year after the character gave her life to save longtime pal Clint Barton in Avengers: Endgame, Nat will invite the deepest dive yet into her past with director Cate Shortland’s Black Widow movie, which has just dropped its first trailer.
Now, it’s something of a misdirect to say that Black Widow will delve into Natasha’s past, given that we’re speaking within the context of a genre that’s been faithfully generous to the tradition of the origin story. Black Widow will not chronicle the early days of Natasha Romanoff’s super adventures in such the way that Captain America: The First Avenger does for Steve Rogers; instead, the film will serve more as a her-past-comes-back-to-haunt-her movie.
It turns out that in the time elapsed between her appearances in Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War, Nat welcomed some old relations back into her life, for better or worse. The above trailer suggests that the grey area between that “better” and “worse” is what Black Widow aims to explore.
Apropos for the typically serious character, Black Widow’s movie looks like it is being sold on tension and action, rather than the comical attitude common among most Marvel pictures. That’s not to say that we should expect Black Widow to stave off on the laughs altogether, but perhaps we might prepare for something closer in tone to Captain America: The Winter Soldier (which one could argue was the MCU’s breakout film for the Black Widow character) than, for instance, the especially joke-dense Avengers: Age of Ultron.
Introduced in this first trailer for Black Widow are characters including Yelena Belova (played by Florence Pugh, known best for this year’s Midsommar and Fighting with My Family), Nat’s fellow agent and surrogate sister; Alexei Shostakov, a.k.a. Red Guardian (played by Stranger Things‘ own Chief Hopper, David Harbour), a costumed adventurer of perhaps the more dangerous variety than Nat’s usual company these days; and Melina Vostokoff, a.k.a. Iron Maiden (played by Rachel Weisz, whose roles of note are far too plentiful to relegate to a parenthetical), who had a hand in turning Natasha Romanoff into Black Widow in the first place.
As with all families, chosen or otherwise, this one seems to be teeming with tension. Where that tension will bring Natasha when these figures come back into life remains to be seen. But at long last, it seems like we will indeed be getting the look behind the curtain of Black Widow that we’ve been yearning for since she was first introduced to the screen in Iron Man 2, nearly ten years ago.
Black Widow will hit theaters on May 1, 2020.
Featured Image: Marvel, Disney
