It’s been a long time coming, but the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Black Widow is finally heading to theaters and Disney Plus Premier Access on July 9th. The movie wrapped principal photography in October 2019, releasing its first teaser trailer just two months later, but over a year after it was originally scheduled to arrive, fans will at long last get the chance to bid farewell to Scarlett Johansson’s Natasha Romanoff, and they can even do it from the comfort of their own homes if they want.
A recent report indicated that Black Widow‘s box office projections have tripled after being delayed several times, and it’s expected to post a strong theatrical showing despite the lingering effects of the Coronavirus pandemic. After all, Godzilla vs. Kong has roared past $300 million globally even after debuting simultaneously on HBO Max, and the MCU is the most lucrative franchise in the history of cinema, so it should play at least as well as the MonsterVerse crossover if not better.
As the marketing campaign begins to enter the final stretch, Black Widow has now officially been rated. While it was always going to end up with the PG-13 label that comes with the overwhelming majority of the MCU’s output, apart from the obvious and notable exception of Deadpool 3, it’s been confirmed that the Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame prequel will feature “intense sequences of violence/action, some language and thematic material.”
It’s the last part that’s the most interesting, with Black Widow‘s narrative possessing the potential to dig a little deeper than the standard MCU blockbuster when it focuses on an elite training school for spies ripped from their homes and childhoods, before spending years getting brainwashed into becoming deadly assassins.