The most common criticism of the forthcoming Marvel Studios film Black Widow is that it will launch Phase 4 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe not by moving the franchise forward beyond the cataclysmic confrontation of Avengers: Endgame, but by looking backward into its own history to tell an intermediate story of a character we’ve already seen make the ultimate sacrifice.
Many have suspected, however, that the retrospective adventure will not simply fill the two-year gap between Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War, but also introduce additional heretofore unknown elements to the overall universe. Now, that conjecture appears to be confirmed as some of the details of Black Widow‘s post-credits scenes have been publicized. The revelations originated on 4Chan, so weigh them with exactly as much credibility as you give to that particular platform, but if you want to experience Black Widow with fresh eyes, turn back now, because here there be dragons.
The leak claims that the film will include two post-credits scenes. The first will involve Yelena Belova and the Taskmaster delivering the Foxcharge flashdrive, which serves as Black Widow‘s central McGuffin, to Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross, revealing that both were working for the General all along, and being told by him that they “are just getting started.” The leak also claims that Taskmaster is, in fact, O.T. Fagbenle’s character of Rick Mason, which is curious, given that the same leak also says that Belova will shoot Taskmaster through his broken mask as he’s about to kill Romanoff in the film’s climactic battle.
This all but confirms that Ross is already in the early stages of building his Thunderbolts team, and supports what we reported back in October regarding the film’s post-credit scene. Given that the MCU still has a respectable roster of rogues at hand – including Samuel Stearns, Justin Hammer, Ava Starr, Helmut Zemo, and Emil Blonsky – it seems almost a foregone conclusion that the General turned Secretary of State would use the resources available to him in the post-Avengers world of Phase 4 to build a similar team of powered individuals with the governmental oversight he believes it requires.
According to the leak, the film’s second post-credits scene will be smaller but more emotionally-driven, featuring a tattooed Clint Barton visiting Natasha’s grave with his children. Such a scene would rectify the absence of a funeral for Romanoff in Avengers: Endgame, and serve as a visual reminder of Natasha’s sacrifice. She refused to allow Barton to trade himself for the Soul Stone on Vormir because he had lost an immediate family member and she had not, and her death was a direct contributing factor in the return of Clint’s wife and children, one of whom’s indirectly named after her.
All of this suggests that Black Widow will prove to be just as important to the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s future as it will be to its past when it premieres on May 1st of this year.
