O-T Fagbenle Teases That He’s Playing Taskmaster In Black Widow

The final action-packed trailer for Black Widow released this morning, prompting actor O-T Fagbenle to tease that he’s likely to be taking on the role of the film’s villain Taskmaster, a deadly Marvel antagonist known for being able to mimic his opponents’ movements precisely.

In a Tweet and Instagram post (the latter of which has since been deleted), he stated:

The Black Widow stand alone movie is coming! The new poster is out, the new trailer is here, it’s going to be a banger of a movie #blackwidow #comingsoon #Mason #TM black.widow

The use of “#TM” seemingly indicates that Fagbenle is set to play Taskmaster, debunking previous rumors that actress Rachael Weisz might secretly be the popular Marvel villain. Apparently, she’ll instead be exclusively playing Melina Vostokoff, a mercenary character from the comics who’s known for her intense hatred of Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson). How exactly this dynamic will play out in the movie is uncertain since exact comic details aren’t always adhered to, but trailers seem to indicate that Vostokoff will work alongside Natasha. That said, it doesn’t seem like too far of a stretch to assume some double-crossing could be in the mix before the credits roll.

Fagbenle, meanwhile, has been nominated for two Screen Actor Guild Awards for his role in The Handmaiden’s Tale, in which he plays the husband of main character June Osborne (Elisabeth Moss). He was also praised for being the high point of the otherwise underwhelming and poorly-received British show The Interceptor prior to it being cancelled after only one season.

Joining Fagbenle is Stranger Things star David Harbour as the Red Guardian and Florence Pugh as Yelena Belova, fresh off her Oscar nomination for her role in 2019’s exceptional retelling of Little Women. As if the film wasn’t packed with stars already, we’ll even see Robert Downey Jr. make an appearance as the forever-adored Tony Stark since the prequel takes place between between the events of Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War – prior to the on-screen deaths of both Black Widow and Iron Man.

Black Widow releases in theaters on May 1st.