Breaking Down the Deadly Past and Comic Book Connections ofBlack Widow‘s First Trailer

Out of nowhere at the crack of dawn this morning , Marvel Studios give us ourfirst surprisal lookat Black Widow , the solo undercover agent movie lover have been dying to see since Scarlett Johansson pommel the hell out of some dudes in a corridor in Iron Man 2 nine years ago . Now , even if Natasha Romanoff hasexited the MCU , there ’s still a chance to delve into her history .

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The trailer open up with a shot of a localisation that is instantly notorious to any MCU lover : Budapest , Hungary ’s cap . In the Marvel movieverse , Budapest is an unseen locale that has come up repeatedly as a of the essence part of several Avengers ’ histories : It ’s the site of an obscure major mission that both Natasha Romanoff ( Scarlett Johansson ) and Clint Barton ( Jeremy Renner , who appear in this trailer briefly but only in archival footage ) undertook as SHIELD agents , a grave case that helped contrive the two spies ’ relationship well before they were wrangled into business with Nick Fury ( Samuel L. Jackson , as well appearing in this preview through archival footage ) .

Natasha Romanoff is back, and she has unfinished business.

Natasha Romanoff is back, and she has unfinished business.Gif: Marvel Studios

“ I used to have nothing , ” Natasha tell us , as we cut down to her front in a mirror . And then , utter of that Avengers story …

We flash back to , well , Natasha ’s own flashback ? We turn out back through snippets of previous Marvel movies — Natasha re - experience her education in the Red Room in Age of Ultron , welcoming her succeeding fellow Avengers aboard the Helicarrier and reminisce with Clint in Avengers …

… and ferment with Nick Fury and buy the farm into actionaboard the Lemurian Starin Captain America : The Winter Soldier . “ And then I got this business , this family … ” Nat ’s narration continue over it all .

Her line here about nothing lasting perpetually is n’t a reference to any of that — Black Widow is position between the case of Captain America : Civil War and Avengers : Infinity War , a two - year period in which the Avengers have been shatter over the induction of the Sokovia Accords , legislation that in the end led to the team direct incline for and against their enactment . While Natasha initially sustain the Accords , taking the side of Tony Stark , she eventually flip over to Team Cap , proceed on the runnel with Steve Rogers and being put on several wanted lists in the procedure .

Back in Budapest , “ present ” Nat gets off a train , on her guard and keeping a low-down profile , given that she ’s now no longer an Avenger but a precious woman . “ Heard you had to go out in a precipitation , ” an unknown human beings narrate her . “ It ’s never well-situated these days , ” Nat responds . It ’s backbreaking to say who Nat ’s speaking to here . The cut the dawdler is about to make make it seem like it could be Thaddeus “ Thunderbolt ” Ross ( William Hurt ) …

Who we get to coup d’oeil here , leading an armoured convoy of troopers . But given that this Ross is using Marvel’screepy - ass de - aging CGon Hurt , this is understandably not a scene from Black Widow ’s present as that dialogue implies . And if it was , considering Nat ’s on the run from Ross , them give an amicable gabfest about her being a criminal is not on the cards . There ’s a chance then , that this is O.T. Fagbenle ’s role . We do n’t know who precisely the Handmaid ’s Tale star is playing in Black Widow — other than his name is “ Mason”—but the voice sound similar and would make a fortune more sense than Ross .

“ So what are you go to do ? ” the mystery story human race expect , as we edit back to Nat , now rifling through sometime identity cards plow with her grimace , reflexion of her yesteryear as a undercover agent . “ I ’ve live a lot of lives , ” she say …

“ But I ’m done running from my yesteryear . ” Now , Nat ’s sweeping through a ostensibly empty block of Budapest apartments , tamp down heat .

Nat continue her chimneysweeper , only for a mystery story woman to call out to her . “ I know you ’re out there , ” the interpreter says , as Nat jokily responds “ I hump you make out I ’m out here . ” This whole sequence wasactually shown earlyto fans at San Diego Comic - Con this yr !

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“ So are we gon na talk like grownups ? ” Nat continue to prod , as we meet our secret woman , also armed : Say hello to Yelena Belova ( Florence Pugh ) , also hump as … the Black Widow .

Yes , Yelena is not only a intersection of the same education program Natasha break down through with the KGB , but actually her successor to the Black Widow mantle . Introduced in the comics in 1999 — by Devin Greyson and J.G. Jones — Yelena was the straight inheritor of Nat ’s former role after she turned hero , with scores in the Red Room ’s harsh and brutal regimes to rival Nat ’s . Over the years since in the comedian she and Natasha have been everything from mirrored foes to nervous competitor , as Nat has assay to deliver Yelena and get the young cleaning lady to see that , just as she herself did , there ’s more to being an agent of the Red Room .

Of course , being bitter rivals meet again for the first clip in age , Nat and Yelena immediately have to set about to flap the bull out of each other . wrick out , commit they ’re both very similar in skill , it ’s a close match — but Yelena seemingly have the better of Nat for a brief second , sending her bouncing off a room access in the apartment they ’re duking it out in .

“ Good to see you too , Sis , ” Nat says , to remind those of us in the audience not up on our Black Widow account about their tortured past . Ah , family reunion .

The two commiserate over a drink , as Yelena ask Nat what brings her home …

And we cut to a shot of Nat wearing a very gracious new costume . It looks like a more tech’d up , layered take on Nat ’s traditional Widow costume in the cartoon strip — it ’s hard to make out , but you could see her Widow ’s Bite gantlet and her belt ( even if it ’s not quite the same design , switch affiliated circles for a more militaristic , squared - off style ) take over the gold coloration from her classic spysuit . But is it new ? We may not have seen it before , but the context here clear it seem like this could be another flashback — the convoy in the background could be the one we saw the new Thunderbolt Ross with earlier in the drone , and Nat ’s ponytail here is different to the plait we ’ve attend her wearing in the present . Could this be the uniform she ’s fall apart whenever she first meets Ross in her life , still a KGB agentive role and not yet the hero we know she ’ll become ?

The narration over here , however , stay in the present tense . “ We have unfinished line , ” Nat tells Yelena , as …

We tailor to them escape across the rooftops of the same apartment composite they were fighting in before . The wardrobes equate up here , so we know that it ’s after they reunite , but they ’re join by a third woman , who is hard to make out in the melee but unquestionably looks suited and booted like she is also a Black Widow . Are Nat and Yelena chasing her , though , or is she chasing them ?

“ We have to go back to where it all started , ” Natasha continues , as we cut to , well , where it all started : what seems to be the Red Room . This could once again be a flashback , given the mysterious shadowy fair sex on the left here looks a lot like Nat in her new costume , going back to her day as a Soviet broker .

The Red Room was one of several KGB breeding programme in the hush-hush comic origins , in what was then a Cold War - era operation that used deadly combat preparation and genic enhancement to turn distaff operatives into the nominal widows . There was even a male person - only combining weight , the Wolf Spider operation , but it was scrapped after its first “ successful ” candidate , Niko Constantin , proved out of the question to moderate .

If this is a flashback and not the innovative iteration of the Red Room , there ’s a chance that the adult male Natasha is utter to here is potentially another physique from the comics and her origins as Widow : Grigor Ivanovich Pchelintsov . Professor Pchelinstov was a superior of “ psychotechnics , ” the brain - change methodology used by the Red Room to implant false retentivity into orphaned miss inducted into the Black Widow program . The retention ? That they were training as ballet dancers at the Bolshoi theater , imagination we know Nat has in her headland , as we picture it in Age of Ultron .

Meanwhile , Nat pitch into action mechanism in style ! This is presumably the present , but it ’s operose to say . Either way , Nat ’s now wearing a snow - appropriate white adaptation of her widow woman courtship . This is , once again , inspired by the funnies — and it ’s actually a relatively recent part of Nat ’s on - page history . The white-hot variant of her suit first appeared in the 2010 miniseries Black Widow : Deadly Origin by Paul Cornell , Tom Raney , John Paul Leon , Scott Hanna , and Matt Milla , a retelling of Natasha ’s early days . The suit , meant to be fall apart by widow woman going into operations in wintry clime , was donned by Natasha as she chase after a mystic chemical group known only as the Icepick Protocols .

“ Lucky us , ” Yelena retorts , as we swerve to what seems to be a raw propagation of Widows being train . They ’re all very good at synchronized gun posing , at least .

Back on what looks like the street of Budapest , a automobile ( peradventure take by Yelena and Natasha ) is chased by an armored fomite , and we finally get ourfirst right glimpseof Black Widow ’s principal villain . Although we do n’t know who ’s under the masquerade yet , this is the Taskmaster , a.k.a . Tony Masters .

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In the funnies , Taskmaster is a legendary mercenary for hire , who hold a name for himself thanks to his genius intellect , control of combat arts , and above all , his “ photographic inborn reflex . ” These reflex response grant Taskmaster to forthwith duplicate the physical skillset of anyone he sees — something he meld with his fight control to fundamentally copy the skill of superheroes and make a name for himself as the ultimate soldier of fortune . He can blast a bow like Hawkeye as we see him do so here , go into hand - to - deal scrap like Iron Fist , and yes , he even has a shield ( not seen here , however ) he flings like Captain America .

“ One matter ’s for sure , ” Nat says . “ It ’s gon na be a hell of a reunion . ” And we get our first very brief glimpse of just one of those intriguing reunification : another Widow agent — Melina ( Rachel Weisz)—cloaked by blinding clean visible light .

This seems like it is actually another familiar fount from the comedian , although there , Melina ( full name Melina Vostokoff ) was n’t really a fellow Black Widow . She was a bitter competition of Natasha ’s as an agent of the Russian government , furious at living in the shadow of Natasha ’s success , but she consume on a different spy identity : Vostokoff was the Iron Maiden , wearing a special skintight lawsuit of flexible metal that insulated her from encroachment , granted a degree of enhanced metier , and deflect Department of Energy attacks .

Vostokoff , furious at playing 2nd violin to the Widows and Nat specifically , finally hold up scalawag and became a mercenary , dedicating herself to end Nat ’s animation as vengeance for the privileges she was given during her time with the KGB . In the picture show , however , it seems like she ’s get to not just be a fellow Widow instead of her own part , but an important ally in Natasha and Yelena ’s new deputation .

As is the next look we meet , who , once again , is another figure from the comics , glimpse here smashing out of a wintery outpost ( perhaps the same one we run across Nat abseil into earlier ? ) and getting his flex on …

… and pose on a costume that he ’s very happy still equip , although the amass Nat , Yelena , and Melina might seem to disagree a petty . This is the costume of Alexei Shostakov ( Stranger Things ’ David Harbour ) , a.k.a . the Red Guardian !

Created by Roy Thomas and John Buscema in 1967 , Shostakov is really the second Red Guardian . The original , Aleksey Lebedev , made a abbreviated appearance in the golden old age Invaders comics fighting alongside Captain American and Namor the Sub - Mariner . Like Lebedev before him , Shostakov ’s Red Guardian was created as a Soviet analog to the Captain America supersoldier program in the U.S. Although the Russians did n’t have a lastingness - raise serum , Alexei was take in hand - to - hand combat and ab initio exert a magnetic disc that he could shake off akin to Steve Rogers ’ shield .

Oh , also , he was Nat ’s husband ? Yeah .

An ace pilot burner for the Soviets , both he and his wife signed up for the Russian Government . While Natasha became the Black Widow , Alexei became a exalt mental testing and combat pilot burner , heralded by state spiritualist as a Soviet icon . When it was decide in the early days of the Cold War to give Russia its own Captain America , Alexei was chosen ( over Yuri Gagarin , who instead have to become the first cosmonaut , of course ! ) … and had his death faked by the KGB , go into concealing to be strictly trained . After becoming Red Guardian he eventually crossed path with both Black Widow and Captain America , but was promptly mangle after unveil his true identity to his former wife .

The Red Guardian of Black Widow has on the face of it been through some changes — that doorway being slammed off its hinges implies that Alexei may at least have some sort of enhanced strength akin to Steve Rogers , and while Natasha clearly has casualness with him given that he ’s been roped into her unlikely “ family ” for Widows , they ’re maybe not married man and wife as they once were in the comics . Who know though ?

Much to the chagrin of Yelena at least , Alexei is well-chosen to be at the table . “ folk … back together again , ” he says to the get together widow woman with a smiling .

“ You got fat , ” Melina jokes to Alexei . What ’s a bit of playful ribbing among friends / former Russian agents ?

Meanwhile suited up and in a lustrous blank facility , Alexei goes toe - to - toe with with Taskmaster . you’re able to very concisely glimpse in the background of their rubbish that Taskmaster ’s Cap - esque shield is embedded in the flooring !

An avalanche have the wintry base we come across originally , with the helicopter that dropped Natasha off barely take flight it . Meanwhile , in a moment that take place presumably before said avalance . Yelena , now clad in a white version of the Widow suit too , fires a rocket engine rocket launcher at one of the outpost ’s towboat . Is this perhaps a flashback to a mission she and Nat go on in their past , or is this a climactic attack on Taskmaster ’s quickness once the radical have reunited ?

Finally , the dawdler ends with one nether region of a hoagy guesswork : Natasha , freefalling through the sky , as she dodges not just wreckage of a crashed plane but also bullets from some orphic , almost Star Wars Stormtrooper - masked attacker . The mode this is cut and even the lighting almost take a crap it seem like this is from the same snowy battle we ’ve just seem glimpses of , but Nat ’s in her black edition of the Widow costume here , and her hair ’s done up in the same ponytail we saw earlier .

So presumptively then , this is what happened before the backwash we develop to see before in the lagger , and whatever delegation Nat was on where she ostensibly meets Thunderbolt Ross and his convoy . Are the soldiers Taskmaster agents , and that ’s why there ’s “ unfinished business ” in the present ? Whatever it is , this is still a nerveless little activeness sequence to terminate the trailer on .

This first poke is , clearly , light on many particular revelation about Natasha ’s time before she became an Agent of SHIELD , and one of Earth ’s Mightiest Heroes . Its mise en scene gives us a chance to learn more about her past times , yes . But at least in this trailer , it ’s reframed through a importantly light lens , one that recontextualizes her time in the Black Widow programme as not just traumatically formative , but a adhesiveness she now shares with a whole team of undercover agent - fi sisters that must reunite to save the daytime . We ’ll have to see just what the film will explore in themysteries and tragediesof the Red Room in next snippets , but for now , the Black Widow is back in heroic natural process , and she ’s far from alone .