Johansson made her big-screen superhero debut in 2010’s Iron Man 2, but her character was initially little more than a sexist stereotype. While Black Widow will finally give Natasha Romanoff a true origin story, her actual beginnings in the MCU serve as a reminder of how far her character has come. (Which, let’s be honest, was probably a win for her anyway.) Even though Marvel is cheating just a bit by turning back the clocks to an earlier part of its increasingly malleable Sacred Timeline, it’s a better alternative than never giving Black Widow the attention she’s always deserved.Īhead of the release of Black Widow on Friday, let’s take a closer look at Natasha Romanoff’s past in the movies and the comics, as well as what might be in store for the Black Widow. And after being the only female Avenger for so long, Black Widow was noticeably absent for Endgame’s big “girl power” moment that brought together all the superheroines that the MCU had amassed by the end of its Infinity Saga. That honor belonged to Brie Larson’s Captain Marvel, whose 2019 debut somehow marked the milestone 21 films into the studio’s unprecedented run. No character or actor has been more deserving of a stand-alone feature than Scarlett Johansson or Black Widow, who, despite being the sole female superhero in 2012’s The Avengers, wasn’t even the first female lead in an MCU film. By drawing the Black Widow out from the shadows of Tony Stark, Steve Rogers, and the rest of the Avengers, her previously unexplored past will finally come to light.īlack Widow continues the trend that has started in the MCU’s nascent Phase 4, as TV shows like WandaVision and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier have cast previously unsung heroes like Wanda Maximoff and Sam Wilson into the spotlight for the first time. Rather than pick up where Endgame left off, Black Widow is set just after 2016’s Captain America: Civil War, with Natasha on the run after the Avengers’ breakup.

During the time-traveling events of the 2019 blockbuster Avengers: Endgame, the former KGB agent and assassin made the ultimate sacrifice so that the Avengers could retrieve the Soul Stone and reverse the genocidal acts of Thanos. The cruel irony of Black Widow’s arrival, after years of fans asking for a stand-alone film for the MCU’s first female superhero, of course, is that Natasha Romanoff is already dead. Eleven years, eight MCU films, and one pandemic later, Black Widow is finally getting her own movie.

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