Black Widow Trailer: Scarlett Johansson's Avenger Returns In Marvel Spy Thriller

Throughout the MCU, Marvel Studios has played with established genres and added superhero elements to them – political thrillers with the later Captain America movies, space operas with the Guardians films, and heist movies with Ant-Man. But now, with Black Widow, the first film in the upcoming Phase 4, it looks like we’re getting the most grounded MCU movie yet, an espionage thriller high on hard-hitting brawls and governmental paranoia based around Scarlett Johansson’s Russian operative Natasha Romanoff. The long-awaited first trailer has finally arrived – watch it below.



There’s plenty to take in here – first it’s a trip through Black Widow’s MCU appearances so far in the likes of the first Avengers and Captain America: The Winter Soldier. That we see nothing from Infinity War or Endgame perhaps lends credence to reports that this one is at least partly set in the gap between Civil War and Infinity War. Either way, what follows feels more akin to a Bourne movie – Romanoff looking paranoid in European train stations, clutching handfuls of ID cards, and engaging in punchy fight scenes in battered-up apartments, the latter of which brings in Florence Pugh’s Yelena Belova, who Romanoff calls “sis”.

From there, there’s talk of “unfinished business” and going “back to where it all started” – hinting that we may see exactly what kind of ‘red’ was on Widow’s ledger that she was so keen to scrub off. Along the way we get a glimpse of masked baddie Taskmaster, Rachel Weisz’s Melina Vostokoff who also has a link to Romanoff and Belova’s past, and David Harbour as Red Guardian – effectively the big, burly, beardy, Russian equivalent of Captain America.

The latest MCU movie comes from Berlin Syndrome director Cate Shortland, another distinctive indie filmmaker being brought into the superhero blockbuster system. She’s directing from a screenplay by Ned Benson and Jac Schaeffer. Most notably different here is the tone – this looks as down-to-earth as Marvel movies get, and while there are hints of supervillainy, Black Widow seems to be dialing down on the more outlandish end of comic book tropes. That’s not to say there isn't big action though, with the trailer’s final reel promising a major aerial attack sequence. And while this does seem to be set prior to Endgame, there’s no hint yet of how Black Widow’s solo movie will reckon with her path in that film –

Spoiler

SPOILER WARNING – in which she sacrificed herself, permanently it seems, to procure the Soul Stone at Vormir for her fellow Avengers.

We’ll get answers aplenty when Black Widow hits UK cinemas on 1 May 2020.

Source: https://www.empireonline.com/movies/news/black-widow-trailer-mcu-spy-movie-scarlett-johansson/