The first trailer for Black Widow, the solo vehicle for the heroic Avenger, is finally
here, and it is pretty spectacular.
There's plenty to unpack in the spot, but with all of the insane action, there are a
few details that you may have missed.
Fortunately, we're pretty good at spotting those.
The trailer opens on a panoramic view of a city, one which might not be immediately familiar
to American eyes.
That statue in the center of the shot is pretty distinctive, however, and if you already have
a gut feeling as to what this setting might be, let us go ahead and confirm it for you.
That installation is called the Liberty Statue, and it watches over the great Hungarian capital
of Budapest.
Now, a few of you may be asking, "So what?"
For the rest of you, we'll give you a second to pick your jaws up off the floor.
You'll recall that, during the absolute mayhem that was the Battle of New York in 2012's
The Avengers, Natasha Romanoff and Clint Barton had a humorous exchange while they were smack
dab in the middle of shooting and arrow-ing the heck out of the invading Chitauri hordes.
"This is like Budapest all over again!"
"You and I remember Budapest very differently."
It seems highly unlikely that this would be a mere coincidence.
It's also worth noting that after this shot dissolves to a montage of previous Marvel
films, with Romanoff's voiceover wistfully recapping the road to her "family" in the
Avengers, the first recognizable character we see is Barton.
Will Hawkeye join in on the action in Black Widow?
We feel pretty safe in guessing that he will.
After a very Widow-y Marvel Studios card, we see Romanoff arriving at Budapest's train
station, followed by a shot of what appears to be a convoy of military vehicles headed
to an unknown location.
We then briefly see who is leading that convoy: General Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross, who is
not the biggest fan of the Avengers.
You'll recall that during Civil War, Romanoff was on the pro-registration team led by Iron
Man.
However, during the enormous brawl at a German airport, she had a slight change of heart,
allowing Captain America and Bucky Barnes to escape, while the rest of Cap's anti-registration
team was captured and hauled off to the Raft super prison.
Romanoff's role in helping them skedaddle would not have been lost on Ross, who almost
certainly has designs on making sure she ends up cooling her heels in the Raft, as well.
Of course, we know that she eventually joins Rogers and Sam Wilson on the run, ending up
in Scotland, where we catch up with the trio during the first act of Avengers: Infinity
War.
This likely means that Ross won't have any luck bringing the Black Widow in, but that
doesn't mean he won't be a major thorn in her side.
The spot finally gives us our first look at an iconic Marvel villain: Taskmaster, who
in the comics is capable of perfectly replicating the fighting style of anyone he might encounter.
The baddie's super-muscle memory also allows him to use any weapon after observing its
use just once, and you will notice that in the Black Widow trailer, he's using a weapon
that we've only ever seen one MCU character employ before, a character who just happens
to have very close ties to Romanoff.
We suppose this could be a coincidence or a mere aesthetic choice, but we do find it
a bit odd that Taskmaster would be channeling Barton in his first appearance in the trailer.
We'd also like to point out that we're using the descriptor "he" because Taskmaster is
male in the comics, but it's not at all clear that this is the case here.
The actor portraying the villain hasn't been disclosed, and it stands to reason that this
is a detail that Marvel has been keeping under lock and key for a reason.
The Taskmaster of the MCU could very well be female...and could, in fact, even be one
of Romanoff's "family."
As we see in a brief scene around a dining room table, this family includes Yelena Belova,
with whom Romanoff has a nice, friendly fight near the opening of the spot and with whom,
at points in the comics, Nat shares the Black Widow moniker; Alexei Shostakov, AKA the Red
Guardian, Russia's answer to Captain America; and Melina Vostokoff, whom we first see briefly
wearing a very Widow-y outfit.
We know that Belova and Vostokoff are products of the same "Red Room" training that molded
Romanoff into a deadly weapon, but in Vostokoff's case in particular, we don't necessarily know
what her motives will be.
In the comics, Vostokoff is known as the Iron Maiden, and she is driven by a deep-seated
hatred of Black Widow, whose shadow she has never been able to escape.
She's even tried to assassinate Romanoff, so if the character indeed remains an ally
throughout this film, it will represent a complete 180 from her comics incarnation.
We were heartened to see that David Harbour, who has earned household name status thanks
to his role as Chief Jim Hopper in Stranger Things, didn't get crazy jacked for his role;
indeed, he's just as doughy, yet he still manages to squeeze into his old suit to join
the ass-kicking party.
"Yeah!
Ahahahahaha…Still fits."
And kick ass, he does, in a very brief shot, we see him going toe to toe with Taskmaster,
an extremely dangerous opponent if ever there was one, and holding his own.
Unfortunately, we only see a literal second of the fight, but if we're being honest, all
we can hope for is that it isn't the last scene in which Red Guardian appears.
Harbour is an extremely endearing actor, his few appearances in this trailer have us anxious
to see more of Shostakov, and that old costume even looks pretty badass.
But it's obvious that the Guardian hasn't seen action for quite some time.
There have to be some high stakes involved in Black Widow, and what we're saying here
is that we really, really hope that the Guardian survives this fight, unlike…well…
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