Marvel has secretly confirmed when Black Widow's Budapest mission happened. Marvel has long teased that some sort of key event in Black Widow's life took place in Budapest, with Natasha frequently trading banter about it with Hawkeye. It all culminated in Avengers: Endgame, with Hawkeye quipping that the two's journey to the planet Vormir was taking them "a long way from Budapest."

At last, Black Widow revealed just what happened in Budapest. It seems Black Widow had traveled to Budapest on a mission for the Red Room, where she had crossed paths with Hawkeye, who had been assigned by SHIELD to take her down. He made a different call, instead partnering with her on an assassination mission to target General Dreykov, the man who ran the Red Room. Amusingly enough, as is common with MCU flashbacks like this, Black Widow's Budapest mission doesn't quite match up with the previous teasers - but it just about works.

Related: Black Widow Forgets To Answer Red Skull's Endgame Mystery

But just when did Black Widow's Budapest mission take place? The film itself was silent on this, but a deleted scene reveals when Marvel intended it to be. The scene "Bike Chase" is an extended version of Natasha and Yelena's flight from Taskmaster, only for Natasha to drive the motorbike they are riding into what Yelena describes as a "cage." A frustrated Natasha complains that the building wasn't there eight years ago - thereby confirming how long it's been since she was last in Budapest, and therefore since she betrayed the Red Room and joined SHIELD. Black Widow is set in 2016, shortly after Captain America: Civil War, meaning the original Budapest mission must have taken place in 2008.

Black Widow posing in Iron Man 2.

This revelation allows viewers to make sense of Black Widow's timeline. As confirmed in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Natasha was born on December 3, 1984. In 1995 the child was part of a Russian spy cell who infiltrated the United States in order to steal mind-control chemicals being cultivated by SHIELD (ironically meaning the Red Room was working against Hydra, given this was actually a Hydra plan). She was taken to the Red Room when that mission was over, and worked for General Dreykov for over a decade - until 2008, when she changed sides and joined SHIELD. Nick Fury was already working on the Avengers Initiative in 2008, so it's likely he ear-marked the super-spy as a member of the project from the start.

2008 really was the year when the MCU was born. In 2008, Tony Stark outed himself as Iron Man to the world, while according to the Black Panther Prelude miniseries, T'Challa succeeded his father as Black Panther in Wakanda. Now, according to Black Widow's deleted scenes, Marvel seem to have intended 2008 to be the year Natasha Romanoff joined SHIELD as well. It's rather a shame "Bike Chase" was cut, because it fits well with the narrative and adds a little extra depth to the MCU; but at least Marvel's intention is clear.

More: Black Widow's Budapest Reveal Makes Hawkeye's MCU Story Worse

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