The trailers for Black Widow have introduced us to Natasha Romanoff’s Russian family – including surrogate parental figures Red Guardian (David Harbour) and Melina (Rachel Weisz) and sister Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh). Of all these, it looks like the movie will mine the most emotion between Nat’s connection with Yelena. So, it could be extra traumatic for the heroine if this fan theory turns out to be true.
Based on the new footage debuted in Black Widow‘s final trailer, which landed online Monday, ScreenRant has put forward the case that Yelena will be taken over by Taskmaster. The trailer reveals that the mysterious villain has taken charge of the Red Room and has found a way to mind-control the Black Widows – we’re told that they remain conscious, but don’t think for themselves and blindly follow his orders. And there’s evidence to suggest Yelena will befall this same fate.
SR notes the importance of the shot featuring Yelena in her white suit strapped to a medical table, with markings along her hairline suggesting some sort of cranial surgery is about to take place. Given that she’s wearing her combat gear, the theory goes that Yelena will be kidnapped by Taskmaster’s forces when Team Black Widow breaks Red Guardian out of prison.
There’s also that worrying scene where Yelena has her eyes closed and an emotional Nat presses her forehead to her sister’s. Some are wondering if this teases her death. That would be a pretty surprising move for Marvel though, who are usually very good at keeping major spoilers like that out of trailers. As such, it’s more likely this is Nat mourning how Taskmaster has taken over Yelena’s mind.
After all, we see in this final trailer that she’s already horrified he’s been doing this to the other Widows and it would no doubt crush her if the same thing happened to Yelena. This is a highly believable theory, then, but we’ll have to wait to see Black Widow in theaters from May 1st to find out if it’s accurate.
