A new Black Widow image offers fans a better look at Natasha Romanoff fighting Taskmaster. Marvel Studios' plans for Phase 4 have been delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic, but in November, they're set to kick things off with Scarlett Johansson's long-overdue standalone film. Directed by Cate Shortland, the project was supposed to hit theaters back in May until it was delayed to a Fall roll out, and as its release nears, marketing for the movie is starting to pick up steam again.

Black Widow will work around Nat's tragic death in Avengers: Endgame by setting its events in the two years between Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War. The film will see the titular character on a personal mission leading her back to Russia, where she reunites with her supposed first family — David Harbour's Alexei Shostakov, aka Red Guardian, Florence Pugh as Yelena Belova, Rachel Weisz as Melina Vostokoff. Plot details about the film have been intentionally kept under wraps, including information about its primary villain, Taskmaster.

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As part of Empire's feature on Black Widow, a brand new promo still from the film has been released featuring Nat facing off Taskmaster. Fans have seen a snippet of this particular action sequence in the trailers, although additional context about it is unknown. Check out the photo below:

While Black Widow has had a few trailers released already, Marvel Studios continues to keep a tight lid on Taskmaster's real identity. Rumor has been persistent, however, that O-T Fagbenle's Mason is the mysterious villain. Aside from hinting about it during a social media live session back in May, chances are that there won't be any more surprise casting for the film. This means that given a relatively smaller cast for Black Widow, there's a good possibility that the actor playing Taskmaster has already been confirmed. Marvel Studios also revealing very little about Mason, who's supposedly Natasha's ally and potential love interest during her S.H.I.E.L.D. day, further lends credence to this ongoing theory. It's worth noting that the promo clips have floated the idea that Natasha doesn't know who Taskmaster is; looking at this image, it seems like this is the moment where she might have figured out who the character is after getting a closer look at them.

It's worth noting that while Black Widow is currently slated to hit theaters in November, it's still uncertain whether or not the current MCU schedule will stick. Everything is still dependent on how things will shake out regarding the coronavirus pandemic in the next couple of months, and it doesn't seem like Marvel Studios is not keen on releasing Black Widow on Disney+ like Disney did to Mulan. Given this, there's still a chance that the solo MCU project will be once again delayed to a later date — at a time where the coronavirus situation is better, and people are more confident in going back to the cinemas.

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Source: Empire

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