BLACK WIDOW

BY: Amanda Jane Stern

Black Widow, the former KGB operative turned Avenger, has finally been given her own movie directed by Cate Shortland, and it’s coming out really soon. Set before the events of Avengers: Endgame, Black Widow sees Natasha Romanoff return to Russia and teams up with allies from her past in order to bring down a mysterious big bad.

In advance of the movie’s release, which has been postponed because of the novel coronavirus, a final trailer for this long-awaited superhero movie was recently released. Not only does it look epic, but the cast assembled for this movie is fantastic. Before we get to see this on the big screen, let’s take a moment to go through the big four actors in this movie and who they are playing.

Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow

Yes, Johansson has been playing Natasha Romanoff since 2010’s Iron Man 2. She has played the character in a multitude of other Marvel movies since, but until now, 10 years after her onscreen introduction, she hasn’t had her own movie. What we know about Natasha is that as a child in Russia, she was sent to a place known as the Red Room where she was trained to be a KGB assassin. Somehow she ended up defecting to the US and becoming an Agent of SHIELD and then an Avenger. This movie will give us more answers into her past and finally show us the mysterious Red Room.

Florence Pugh as Yelena Belova

Yelena has been described as both a sisterly figure to Natasha and a bit of an antagonist. She trained in the Red Room alongside Natasha. Though she never defected to the US, it does appear from the trailer that she is no longer aligned with the KGB or whatever organization the Red Room had trained her for. She teams up with Natasha to bring down the red room.

David Harbour as Alexei Shostakov / Red Guardian

Alexei is a father figure to both Natasha and Yelena. He did not train at the Red Room, which is only for women, but his super counterpart, Red Guardian, is the Russian version of Captain America. From the trailer it seems Alexei has not donned the garb of his alter-ego in some time. But when Natasha returns and needs his help, he suits up again to fight.

Rachel Weisz as Melina Vostokoff

Another Red Room-trained assassin, Melina is a mother figure to Natasha and Yelena. She has been described as being part of some secret scientific experiment. Although the trailer does not tell us what she has been doing since Natasha left Russia, it is likely that like Yelena, she is no longer involved with the Red Room.

 

Don’t forget to go see Black Widow in theaters sometime in the future. And of course, check out the final trailer above to get yourself pumped for this movie.