It’s been over three and a half years since Avengers: Endgame was released, and yet there are still plenty of Marvel Cinematic Universe fans out there who refuse to get over the death of Scarlett Johansson’s Natasha Romanoff.
Even though Black Widow arrived last summer to finally give one of the franchise’s longest-tenured stars a blockbuster movie of their own, which also introduced Florence Pugh’s instant favorite Yelena Belova into the mix, it simply wasn’t good enough for the doomsayers and detractors who blasted the decision to have Nat make the ultimate sacrifice for the greater good.
The fact the character was trending very recently for her in-canon MCU birthday speaks volumes about the high regard in which Johansson’s ass-kicking operative is still held, but Endgame co-director Joe Russo does not care in the slightest that people refuse to forgive him for sending a Phase One stalwart to their doom.
Playing the world’s tiniest violin while making a pouty face with Dido’s “White Flag” playing in the background is cold to say the least, but also darkly hilarious. The Russos might be done with the MCU for the time being, but that doesn’t mean their history and association with the comic book behemoth isn’t going to continue following them around wherever they go, regardless of how many Netflix blockbusters and questionable TikTok-inspired Disney remakes they occupy their time with in the interim.
Rumors continue to abound that Johansson could return in an onscreen capacity, but for once we can only hope that dead actually means dead in the MCU, because the fake-out demise has been done way too often.
