Natasha Romanoff gets the origin story she deserves in Black Widow trailer

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Natasha Romanoff gets the origin story she deserves in Black Widow trailer

Natasha reunites with her "sister," and David Harbour shows off his "Dad bod."

Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson) has a score to settle with her past in Marvel's Black Widow.

 

Fans of the MCU have been clamoring for a standalone Black Widow movie for years, but the project kept getting pushed to the back burner, since Marvel was so heavily focused on bringing the long-running Avengers story arc to a fitting conclusion with this year's Avengers: End Game. We now have the first trailer for Black Widow, and it promises to finally give the character the origin story she so richly deserves.

 

(Some spoilers for Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: End Game below.)

 

We know that the Russian-born Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) was trained as a spy/assassin in a secretive academy known as the Red Room, which disguised itself as a ballet school. All the "Black Widows" were sterilized, so Natasha is unable to bear children. Clint Barton, aka Hawkeye, is sent to take her out and recruits her to S.H.I.E.L.D. instead. The two become fast friends, and both wind up joining the Avengers, giving Natasha a family of sorts. When the group splits in Captain America: Civil War, Natasha initially sides with Tony Stark/Iron Man, even though it pits her against Barton and Steve Rogers. But her loyalties remain divided, and in the battle at Leipzig Airport, she lets Rogers and Bucky Barnes escape.

 

After "the Snappening," a devastated Natasha travels to the past and ultimately sacrifices herself on the planet Vormir so Barton can retrieve the Soul Stone. It proved to be a controversial decision with the fans: the barren Natasha dies so Barton can return to his (soon to be un-disintegrated) family, as if all her training and accomplishments meant nothing if she was unable to bear children.

 

Personally, I understood the character arc. Natasha has always been haunted by her many past misdeeds, saying repeatedly that she has "red" in her "ledger," her work with the Avengers is a way to right the balance. What better way to clear away all that red ink by making the ultimate sacrifice? I would, however, argue that her death was handled a bit too perfunctorily in Avengers: End Game, overshadowed even more when Tony Stark also sacrifices himself to save the day.

 

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Natasha's death might have resonated more if we'd gotten a Black Widow standalone film before the final showdown between Thanos and the Avengers, but, well, that was not to be. Instead, we're getting her origin story as part of Marvel's "phase two" for the MCU. (Better late than never, I guess.) The events of Black Widow are set just after Civil War, when Natasha "finds herself alone and forced to confront her past while facing against a new threat," per the official synopsis.

 

The trailer opens with a shot of Natasha somberly staring at her reflection in a mirror, while images of her past flash before us: ballerinas practicing at the Red Room, a young Natasha aiming a gun, then an older Black Widow joining up with S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Avengers. So what does one do when a family breaks up? "I've lived a lot of lives," Natasha says in a voiceover. "But I'm done running from my past."

 

Confronting her past means traveling back home, where we see her reunite with one of her "sisters" from the Red Room, Yelena (Midsommar's Florence Pugh). Naturally it involves a bit of hand-to-hand combat in lieu of a touchy-feely embrace. We don't learn much about why Natasha has come home, other than "unfinished business," as she claims, "We have to go back to where it all started."

 

Dealing with her past seems to involve breaking David Harbour and his famous "dad bod" out of a snowy Russian prison. Harbour plays Alexei Shostakov, aka Red Guardian, the Russian super-soldier equivalent of Captain America. "Still fits!" Alexei proudly declares after squeezing back into his Red Guardian outfit. "You got fat," an unimpressed Melina (Rachel Weisz) observes. (Her character is another well-trained Black Widow spy with a scientific bent.) The rest of the trailer is a series of action shots: Red Guardian going toe to toe with an unnamed opponent, explosions, and a death-defying leap by Natasha. All in all, it looks like a fun, exciting—did I mention overdue?—addition to the MCU.

 

Black Widow hits theaters on May 1, 2020.

 

 

Source: Natasha Romanoff gets the origin story she deserves in Black Widow trailer (Ars Technica)  

 

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