It took 20 movies for the Marvel Cinematic Universe to put a female superhero in the title (Ant-Man and the Wasp); now it’s been three out of the last five, including Captain Marvel and Black Widow, which Marvel just released the first teaser trailer for.
Set between the events of Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War, Black Widow stars Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanoff, the KGB assassin turned Avenger who sacrificed herself to save the world in Avengers: Endgame. But, again, that hasn’t happened yet. In Black Widow, she’s “done running from my past,” which means reuniting with her “family,” including “sis” Yelena Belova, a.k.a. the future-Black Widow, at least in the comics (played by Florence Pugh); Melina Vostokoff, a.k.a. Iron Maiden (Rachel Weisz); and Alexei Shostakov, a.k.a. Red Guardian (David Harbour), who got fat, but he’s still able to face off against villain Taskmaster in hand-to-hand combat.
“Where we find Natasha in her life at this point is very specific,” Johansson said about Black Widow. “She really is in a dark place where she’s got no one to call and nowhere to go. She’s really grappling with her own self. When something huge explodes and all the pieces are landing, you have that moment of stillness where you don’t know what to do next — that’s the moment that she’s in. In that moment, you actually have to face yourself.” Black Widow sounds like her other film, Marriage Story, but with less fighting.
Directed by Cate Shortland, Black Widow opens on May 1, 2020.
