David Harbour is most known for his role as Hopper in Stranger Things, but he’s been due a major superhero movie gig for a while now. It looked like he was going to be the face of the rebooted Hellboy franchise, but this year’s remake ended up failing to impress. The good news then is that he’s landed a role as another red-themed comic book character in Marvel’s Black Widow. And this time, the odds are high that he’s got multiple appearances to come.
We Got This Covered has heard from our sources – the same ones who told us Cosmic Ghost Rider was coming to the MCU, which might’ve been confirmed today – that Marvel has plans to do more with Red Guardian in future films. Though Black Widow will be mostly set after Captain America: Civil War, Alexei Shostakov is expected to return in Phase 5 and/or 6 movies taking place in the present-day. It’s likely that one of these is Black Widow 2, which we’ve been told is in the works with Florence Pugh’s Yelena Belova taking over the lead from Scarlett Johansson.
Like Harbour, Pugh will make her debut in the 2020 movie, as will Rachel Weisz as another Black Widow, Melina, and the villainous Taskmaster (though the actor playing him is undisclosed at this time). It’s not yet clear if any other characters from BW have futures in the MCU, but Marvel definitely has major plans for both Yelena and Red Guardian, and it’s not hard to see why.
On a related note, though, Harbour may be getting some Stranger Things stars to keep him company in the MCU soon, as we’ve heard that both Millie Bobby Brown and Finn Wolfhard are up for roles in Phase 4. The same goes for Dacre Montgomery, who WGTC has heard is one contender for the part of Adam Warlock in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. It remains to be seen whether any of these castings will happen, but for now, you can rest assured David Harbour will be sticking around for a while yet.