Small Details You Missed In The Black Widow Trailer
The first trailer for Black Widow, the solo vehicle for the heroic Avenger, is finally here, and it is pretty spectacular. We know what you might be thinking: didn't Natasha Romanoff sacrifice herself so that her best buddy Clint Barton could acquire the Soul Stone in Avengers: Endgame? Yes, that she did — but Black Widow is a prequel, focusing on the time period in between the massive superhero brawl of Captain America: Civil War and the Earth-shattering events of Avengers: Infinity War.
During this time, it seems that Romanoff returned home to Russia to pay a visit to the "family" that we never knew she had — and to get caught up in some kind of crazy international intrigue while she was at it. The trailer shows off a wealth of interesting settings, new characters, and some of the bone-crunching fight choreography that we have a sneaking suspicion this film will become legendary for.
There's plenty to unpack in the spot, but with all of the insane action packed into its brief run time, there are a few little details that you may have missed. Fortunately, we're pretty good at spotting those.
Hawkeye remembered one of the movie's settings very differently
The trailer opens on a panoramic view of a city, one which might not be immediately familiar to American eyes. That statue in the center of the shot is pretty distinctive, however, and if you already have a gut feeling as to what this setting might be, let us go ahead and confirm it for you. That installation is called the Liberty Statue, and it watches over the great Hungarian capital of Budapest.
Now, a few of you may be asking, "So what?" For the rest of you, we'll give you a second to pick your jaws up off the floor. You'll recall that, during the absolute mayhem that was the Battle of New York in 2012's The Avengers, Romanoff and Barton had a hilarious exchange while they were smack dab in the middle of shooting and arrow-ing the heck out of the invading Chitauri hordes. "This is like Budapest all over again!" Romanoff exclaimed, to which Barton replied in deadpan fashion, "You and I remember Budapest very differently."
It seems highly unlikely that this would be a mere coincidence. It's also worth noting that after this shot dissolves to a montage from previous Marvel films, with Romanoff's voiceover wistfully recapping the road to her "family" in the Avengers, the first recognizable character we see is Barton. Will Hawkeye join in on the action in Black Widow? We feel pretty safe in guessing that he will.
Thunderbolt taking a break from chasing down Banner
After a very Widow-y Marvel Studios card, we see Romanoff arriving at Budapest's train station, followed by a shot of what appears to be a convoy of military vehicles headed to an unknown location. We then briefly see who is leading that convoy: General Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross (William Hurt), who is not the biggest fan of the Avengers.
You'll recall that during Civil War, Romanoff was on the pro-registration team led by Iron Man (Robert Downey, Jr.). However, during the enormous brawl at Leipzig/Halle Airport in Germany, she had a slight change of heart, allowing Captain America (Chris Evans) and Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) to escape, while the rest of Cap's anti-registration team was captured and hauled off to the Raft super-prison.
Romanoff's role in helping them skedaddle would not have been lost on Ross, who almost certainly has designs on making sure she ends up cooling her heels in the Raft, as well. Of course, we know that she eventually joins Rogers and Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) on the run, ending up in Scotland, where we catch up with the trio during the first act of Avengers: Infinity War. This likely means that Ross won't have any luck bringing the Black Widow in — but that doesn't mean he won't be a major thorn in her side.
Taskmaster channeling one of Natasha's allies
The spot finally gives us our first look at an iconic Marvel villain: Taskmaster, who in the comics is capable of perfectly replicating the fighting style of anyone he might encounter. The baddie's super-muscle memory also allows him to use any weapon after observing its use just once, and you will notice that in the still above, he's using a weapon that we've only ever seen one MCU character employ before — a character who just happens to have very close ties to Romanoff.
We suppose this could be a coincidence or a mere aesthetic choice, but we do find it a bit odd that Taskmaster would be channeling Barton in his first appearance in the trailer. We'd also like to point out that we're using the descriptor "he" because Taskmaster is male in the comics, but it's not at all clear that this is the case here. The actor portraying the villain hasn't been disclosed, and it stands to reason that this is a detail that Marvel has been keeping under lock and key for a reason. The Taskmaster of the MCU could very well be female... could, in fact, even be one of Romanoff's "family."
Iron Maiden... friend or foe?
As we see in a brief scene around a dining room table, this family includes Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), with whom Romanoff has a nice, friendly fight near the opening of the spot; Alexei Shostakov (David Harbour), AKA the Red Guardian, Russia's answer to Captain America; and Melina Vostokoff (Rachel Weisz), whom we first see briefly wearing a very Widow-y outfit. We know that Belova and Vostokoff are products of the same "Red Room" training that molded Romanoff into a deadly weapon — but in Vostokoff's case in particular, we don't necessarily know what her motives will be.
In the comics, Vostokoff is known as the Iron Maiden (excellent!), and she is driven by a deep-seated hatred of Black Widow, whose shadow she has never been able to escape. She's even tried to assassinate Romanoff, so if the character indeed remains an ally throughout this film, it will represent a complete one-eighty from her comics incarnation. For that matter, Vostokoff herself may be the Taskmaster — we simply don't know, and Marvel certainly isn't telling, but that would be a pretty cool twist.
Red Guardian vs. Taskmaster
We were heartened to see that Harbour, who has earned household name status thanks to his role as Chief Jim Hopper in Stranger Things, didn't get crazy jacked for his role; indeed, he's just as doughy and flabby as ever (if not more so), yet he still manages to squeeze into his old suit to join the ass-kicking party. And kick ass, he does — in a very brief shot, we see him going toe to toe with Taskmaster, an extremely dangerous opponent if ever there was one, and holding his own.
Unfortunately, we only see a literal second of the fight — but if we're being honest, all we can hope for is that this isn't the last scene in which Red Guardian appears. Harbour is an extremely endearing (if perpetually gruff) actor, his few appearances in this trailer have us anxious to see more of Shostakov, and that old costume even looks pretty badass. But it's obvious that the Guardian hasn't seen action for quite some time, and the Taskmaster's skill set makes him (or her) damn near impossible to defeat in hand-to-hand combat. There have to be some high stakes involved in Black Widow, and what we're saying here is that we really, really hope that the Guardian survives this fight.
Two Black Widows for the price of one
While we're not sure whether Vostokoff will turn out to be friend or foe, we can say with reasonable certainty that Belova (whom Romanoff refers to as "sis" early in the spot) won't end up being a turncoat. In a crazily action-packed sequence near the spot's end, we see Romanoff dive-bombing her way into some kind of enemy installation, pursued by machine gun-wielding troops — and who should have her back but Belova, who makes her presence felt by way of collapsing a tower with a rocket launcher fired from a helicopter.
This looks like the kind of sequence that will appear late in the movie, so feel reasonably safe in stating that Belova will be on Romanoff's side throughout. It's also worth noting that in the comics, Belova has been known to take up the mantle of Black Widow herself — and that, following the events of Endgame, the MCU happens to be down one Black Widow. Pugh's career has been heating up steadily in the last year, with appearances in Fighting with my Family, Midsommar, and Little Women coming in 2019 alone; she's just the kind of young talent that Marvel Studios likes to lock up for multiple pictures, so we think there's a pretty good chance that we're looking a future Avenger here.
Black Widow hits the big screen on May 1, 2020.