The MCU Already Retconned Black Widow's Perfect Ending

Black Widow will take viewers back a couple of years to reunite with Natasha Romanoff one final time, and while her fate has already been sealed in Avengers: Endgame, the Marvel Cinematic Universe had already retconned her perfect ending. Although the Infinity Saga has now come to an end and with it the arcs of most of the original Avengers, the MCU is taking a few steps back to revisit Natasha Romanoff’s (Scarlett Johansson) story and answer some questions about her past in Black Widow.

Set between the events of Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War, Black Widow will follow Natasha as she arrives in Russia to hide as she’s on the run after the Civil War conflict, in which she ended up being on Steve Rogers’ side. Once there, she will reunite with her Russian family – Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), Melina Vostokoff (Rachel Weisz), and Alexei Shostakov/Red Guardian (David Harbour) – and will come across a one-of-a-kind villain called Taskmaster, who has the ability to mimic the movements and fighting style of everyone they observe. As mentioned above, Natasha’s fate has already been sealed, but before that, the MCU had already given her a perfect ending, but it quickly retconned it.

Natasha was one of the few heroes who survived Thanos’ snap in Avengers: Infinity War, and she was part of the time heist in Avengers: Endgame, teaming up with Hawkeye to retrieve the Soul Stone from Vormir. Natasha ended up sacrificing herself so Hawkeye could take the stone and return to their present, and as she didn’t die as a result of the snap, she couldn’t be brought back through the Hulk’s snap. The ending the MCU gave to Natasha has been quite controversial, more so as it had already given her a perfect one in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and it didn’t take long for it to be retconned.

Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow in Captain America The Winter Soldier Cropped Poster

After the reveal of HYDRA still being active and operating within S.H.I.E.L.D., leading to the fall of the agency, many secrets kept by S.H.I.E.L.D. were made public, putting many people at risk, including Natasha. In the final minutes of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Natasha met with Steve at the cemetery where Nick Fury’s fake grave was and told him all her covers had been revealed, so she needed a new identity. Giving Natasha a new identity after she had atoned for her sins and her crimes had been made public (and thus it was shown how much she had worked to get past them) would have allowed her to retire and have the peaceful life she could never have, but she was brought back not long after. The next Avengers adventure after The Winter Soldier was Avengers: Age of Ultron, followed by Captain America: Civil War, and Natasha was brought back without a problem and no mention of her new identity and her life post-Winter Soldier.

Having Natasha retire and live a new, peaceful life under a new identity would have been the perfect closure to a character who went through a lot of pain and tragedy since she was young. Of course, Black Widow can’t give her a different and better ending, but it can at least give her one final adventure through which many questions about her past will be answered, but the damage is already done when it comes to how her arc ended.

Next: Theory: MCU's Black Widow Replacement Is Actually The RED Widow