After being left out of Captain America: Civil War, Thor: Ragnarok will see the titular God of Thunder and Bruce Banner/the Hulk team up to form their own ragtag superhero squad – dubbed “the Revengers” – to fight Hela, the Goddess of Death. Of course, we know that Doctor Strange is also set to play a role, as teased by the post-credits scene of his 2016 movie, but there’s still one more Avenger who turns up in Taika Waititi’s threeequel that no one expected to see.
Warning: spoilers will follow.
*
*
*
Stuck on Sakaar, Thor and Hulk attempt to escape in the S.H.I.E.L.D. Quinjet that took the Jade Giant into space at the end of Avengers: Age of Ultron. When the controls are activated, a pre-recorded message featuring none other than Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow appears!
“Nice work, big guy,” she says, in a scene which is meant to be set during Ultron‘s climax. “We don’t know where Ultron’s headed, but you’re going very high very fast so I need you to turn this bird around, ok? We can’t track you in stealth mode, so… I need you to help me out, ok?”
The sight of Natasha instantly calms Hulk down and brings out Banner, for the first time in two years. Also, the first thing Bruce asks is “How’s Nat?” So, it looks like the Banner/Widow romance is going to continue to be explored over Avengers: Infinity War and its sequel – for better or for worse.
Johansson’s role is small here, but very welcome, and was presumably filmed during production on Infinity War. After all, Widow’s red hair looks like a wig in this scene, which makes sense given that she’s rocking a blonde look for the upcoming team-up movie. Again, it’s not a huge or important part by any means, but given that most of Ragnarok‘s other cameos have already leaked out ahead of release, it’s impressive that they managed to keep this one under wraps.
Be sure to catch Thor: Ragnarok when it lands in US cinemas on November 3rd.