Thanks to a fateful trip to Vormir halfway through Avengers: Endgame, Scarlett Johansson’s Natasha Romanoff had to sit out of the most climatic final fight scene in the MCU’s 23-film history. But it looks like the character will get a mulligan on the action, as the solo Black Widow movie is set to feature more battle scenes than any other Marvel flick up until this point.
The news comes directly from Johansson herself, speaking after Marvel’s massive San Diego Comic-Con panel and saying:
“Oh, yeah. There’s a lot of fighting in this movie. Like, so much fighting. Much more fighting than I think has ever… I think other producers that come onto the set, they’re like, ‘There’s more fighting in this than any other Marvel movie we’ve ever made.’ It’s just brutal. I think because it’s based in reality, all the action is based in reality and it’s a lot of hand-to-hand combat. It’s painful.”
Considering the last two Avengers movies were practically action set piece staked upon action set piece (Infinity War especially), this is surprising to hear. Then again, the very first look at Black Widow footage revealed a hyper violent thriller not unlike Captain America: The Winter Solider, which set the bar high for future hand-to-hand combat scenes.
While we still don’t have a lot of info on the film, what we do know gives credence to the action scene stat. After all, David Harbour is set to play the Red Guardian, a Russian Captain America surrogate and master of hand-to-hand combat. Florence Pugh, meanwhile, has been cast as Yelena Belova, another Red Room recruit and Romanoff’s foil. Plus, we know the Taskmaster, whose power set is 100% based on mimicking moves used in close combat, will serve as the movie’s big bad.
On top of the new characters, it’s been revealed that Black Widow will delve deeper into the dark backstory of its titular hero that was first hinted at in Avengers: Age of Ultron when the Scarlet Witch enchanted her mind to depict her worst nightmares. These pseudo-flashbacks gave us a peak into the Red Room, a soviet training facility that brainwashed Romanoff (and many other young women) into murderous assassins and spies, a perfect place for her first solo film to jump off of.
Black Widow is set to hit theaters in about ten months from now, on May 1st, 2020. It’s likely general audience will receive our first look at the movie soon, then, possibly after Marvel’s upcoming D23 panel, so be sure to stay tuned.