Later this year (on May 1, to be exact), Black Widow will finally be getting her own solo movie. Since Natasha Romanoff has fought alongside the Avengers since the beginning and Marvel fans love her, it’s about darn time.
On one hand, this way, Nat gets to be the character who kickstarts the MCU’s much-anticipated Phase Four and ushers in the next era of the franchise. But on the other hand, this movie is long overdue. So, here are 5 reasons why Black Widow is the perfect character to kick off Phase 4 (and 5 why she should have gotten a solo movie earlier).
Perfect way to start Phase Four: She’s one of the six original Avengers
Phase Four is going to be all over the place. Disney+ is introducing such exciting new characters as Moon Knight, She-Hulk, and Ms. Marvel into the MCU. Doctor Strange and Scarlet Witch are tearing open the multiverse. Jane Foster is taking on the mantle of Thor. Starting things off with a solo movie set during the Infinity Saga with one of the six original Avengers at its center will keep things focused, and not alienate fans who are still hung up on Endgame.
It could be seen as playing it safe, but no franchise has ever attempted what the MCU is doing. Plus, Phase Four is essentially continuing a story after it ended in a satisfying way, which is a huge creative risk. With everything that’s happening and the things that are about to come to light, people might just need a little safe.
Should’ve gotten a movie earlier: She’s a fan-favorite character
Black Widow has been a fan-favorite Marvel character since she first appeared in Iron Man 2. She was the second Avenger that MCU audiences got to meet. Every time Black Widow shows up in an Avengers movie, like the “She’s not alone” moment in Infinity War, when she saves Scarlet Witch from Proxima Midnight, it brings the house down.
Fans love this character. Like Hawkeye, she’s a regular person with no superhuman abilities or performance-enhancing tech, but unlike Hawkeye, she actually manages to hold her own in each battle. Fans have been crying out for Black Widow to get her own movie for years. Come on, Marvel, it’s called supply and demand.
Perfect way to start Phase Four: It moves the story forward by going backward
As a prequel set between Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War, Black Widow will invariably feel like a step backward. But by telling a new story in familiar territory, this movie could actually move the story forward by going backward. From Phase Four onwards, Marvel’s movies are going to start relying a lot more on the audience being familiar with other movies and TV shows.
Exploring the idea of jumping around the timeline and telling one-off stories instead of striving towards the next big team-up movie could be how the MCU will remain relevant in a post-Endgame world. Superhero movie fatigue will inevitably set in sooner or later, so each individual movie will have to step up its game. Black Widow feels like a spy thriller set in a comic book world, giving Ragnarok-level creative control to director Cate Shortland, which is exciting.
Should’ve gotten a movie earlier: Her character is already dead
The clearest indication that Black Widow’s solo movie is too late is that her MCU character arc is already over and, in the franchise’s ongoing timeline, she’s dead. The movie will reportedly be a prequel, chronicling what Nat got up to in the years between Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War while she was technically a political fugitive.
This is an exciting prospect, and it’ll fill in some gaps in the continuity, but it still feels like an afterthought, because the character died in last year’s Avengers: Endgame, so the storytelling possibilities for her solo outing are seriously limited.
Perfect way to start Phase Four: It’ll give the character a proper send-off
Although the death of Tony Stark followed by his funeral gave Avengers: Endgame – and, indeed, the entire Infinity Saga – a beautiful, emotional, well-earned conclusion, Marvel fans couldn’t help but feel a little let down that Natasha Romanoff’s sacrifice was sort of swept under the rug. She didn’t get a memorial, even though she gave her life to save everybody from Thanos, just like Tony.
The upcoming Black Widow movie won’t actually depict the end of Nat’s on-screen journey, because we already saw that in Endgame, but it can give her character the fitting send-off that Endgame, unfortunately, deprived her of.
Should’ve gotten a movie earlier: Her origin story was teased in Age of Ultron
Marvel fans have been intrigued by Black Widow’s murky past since the beginning, but it was Avengers: Age of Ultron that really piqued the audience’s interest in this character. All throughout Age of Ultron, Natasha has flashbacks to her time in the “Red Room” program, induced by Scarlet Witch and the power of the Mind Stone.
We see glimpses of a young Nat being taught how to kill, forced to shoot people in the head. Ever since Joss Whedon gave us these little hints at Black Widow’s backstory, fans have been interested in seeing it fleshed out in her own movie. And that was five years ago.
Perfect way to start Phase Four: It can plant seeds for later movies and TV shows
Exactly how the introduction of characters like the Eternals and Shang-Chi throughout Phase Four will deal with the fact that a cosmic genocide is in everyone’s recent memory remains to be seen. But with Black Widow being set in a pre-Snap world, it has the chance to plant seeds for later movies that will be set after the Snap.
What this would entail depends entirely on Black Widow’s storyline and Marvel’s plans for its other storylines, but an off-the-cuff example could be to show Baron Zemo using the Snap to escape from his imprisonment on the Raft in time for his nefarious role in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.
Should’ve gotten a movie earlier: She’s one of the MCU’s most complex and underserved characters
Natasha Romanoff is one of the most complex characters in the MCU. She’s done some terrible things in the past – one might say unforgivable things – for bad people who manipulated her, and she’s trying to reconcile all of that anguish and do some good, hence her dedication to the Avengers. And so far, the MCU has failed to do enough with that.
Stephen Strange is essentially a second-rate carbon copy of Tony Stark and Scott Lang is a guy who loves his daughter and cracks jokes at the end of Michael Douglas’ emotional monologues. No offense to those characters, but with Natasha’s past and her inner conflicts, she’s a heck of a lot more complex than them.
Perfect way to start Phase Four: It puts her movie on par with Iron Man
In 2008, Iron Man kicked off both the MCU and its first major chapter, “the Infinity Saga.” Marvel isn’t stopping any time soon. Phase Four will lead into Phase Five, which may lead into Phase Six, which may conclude another 20something-part saga. What culminated in Avengers: Endgame began in Iron Man.
Black Widow won’t necessarily be doing that, because it’s hard to imagine Nat appearing in many more movies after this, much less being at the center of the next big event movie, but starting the MCU’s next saga puts this movie on par with Iron Man in terms of significance. It’ll go down in the annals of MCU history.
Should’ve gotten a movie earlier: She deserved the distinction of the MCU’s first female-led movie
Thanks to Ike Perlmutter’s early reign over the MCU, it took the franchise a disappointingly long time to give a solo movie to a female character. The MCU eventually gave us Captain Marvel in 2019, and now, Carol Danvers has the distinction of starring in the MCU’s first female-led movie. But she just showed up out of nowhere.
If anyone deserved the distinction of starring in the MCU’s first female-led movie, it was Natasha Romanoff. She put in her hours. After being relegated to supporting roles in seven male-led movies while fans were crying out for a standalone outing, Black Widow getting the MCU’s first female-led movie would’ve felt like even more of a triumph.
