Disney's Black Widow Release Plan Continues Endgame's Natasha Failure

Black Widow is still planned to be released in theaters in 2021, but this only continues Avengers: Endgame’s Natasha Romanoff failure. Although the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Infinity Saga has come to an end with Spider-Man: Far From Home after the events of Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, that doesn’t mean that all the original Avengers will be left behind, and while Thor is getting a new adventure in Thor: Love and Thunder, the MCU will take viewers back a couple of years to reunite with Natasha Romanoff in Black Widow.

Set between the events of Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War, Black Widow follows Natasha Romanoff (Scarlet Johansson) while she’s on the run after the Civil War conflict, prompting her to return to Russia. There she reunites with her Russian “family” – Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), Melina Vostokoff (Rachel Weisz), and Alexei Shostakov/Red Guardian (David Harbour) – and is forced to confront a dangerous conspiracy with ties to her difficult past. In the process, she will come across Taskmaster, a villain who can mimic the physical movements of anyone he observes, giving him the upper hand in any battle. Black Widow has gone through various delays due to the coronavirus pandemic, but Disney’s insistence on releasing it theatrically only keeps hurting the character.

Black Widow made her MCU debut in Iron Man 2 before she joined the rest of the Avengers in the 2012 movie The Avengers, and fans asked for her to get her own movie ever since. Black Widow remained a member of the Avengers until her death in Avengers: Endgame when she sacrificed herself in Vormir so Hawkeye could take the soul stone and return to their present with it. As Natasha didn’t die as a result of the snap, she couldn’t be brought back, but Marvel is giving the audience one final chance to see her in action in Black Widow, but the constant delays have only affected the movie and the character, and not only in terms of relevance.

Surely, Black Widow should have happened long ago, but MCU fans were still interested in seeing her in her own adventure after Avengers: Endgame, but the many delays as a result of the coronavirus pandemic have inevitably made that interest decrease. While Disney has already released some of its movies that couldn’t hit theaters on Disney+ (some for a special price), the studio refuses to do the same with Black Widow and insists on releasing it theatrically (with the latest date being May 7, 2021). Although it deserves a theatrical release, many cinemas around the world are still closed or have limited capacity, and many people (understandably) aren’t comfortable going to theaters yet, so many won’t be able to watch the movie.

This is only the latest addition to a long list of ways in which the MCU failed Black Widow, most recently in Avengers: Endgame, where she was the one chosen to die when in the previous movie, Captain America made it clear that they “don’t trade lives”, yet that’s exactly what happened – and to make it worse, it happened to the one character with an inconsistent portrayal through all her appearances that didn’t let her grow (at least Hawkeye, the other forgotten Avenger, went full Ronin and back to being a hero in the same movie). Now, after being just a plot device rather than an active player in Avengers: Endgame, her movie won’t be able to get the attention and audience it deserves, simply because Disney insists on releasing Black Widow in cinemas. The damage is done, but hopefully, Marvel will learn from all their Black Widow mistakes and improve the portrayal and stories of its female heroes.

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