One could argue that an MCU movie – or indeed any movie, for that matter – is only as interesting as its big bad.
It’s part of the reason why Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame, its super-sized sequel, are held in such high regard by comic book movie fans, as it was Josh Brolin’s Thanos who brought a certain amount of gravitas to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
And while he isn’t plotting to wipe out half of all life in the universe, Taskmaster poses a real threat to Natasha Romanoff in this year’s standalone Black Widow movie. It’s due to open worldwide on May 1st, and sure enough, Marvel’s hard-wired marketing machine is beginning to fire on all cylinders.
With the Big Game spot already out in the open, today brings forth new artwork of Taskmaster himself. And it’s arguably our best look yet at Black Widow‘s primary antagonist. See for yourself:
That’s not to say Taskmaster will be the only threat facing Black Widow; speculation is rife that ScarJo’s secret agent will be surrounded by frenemies in the Cate Shortland-directed spinoff. The question, really, is whether Marvel’s creative team plan to rework Taskmaster into an anti-hero, in which case Black Widow will remain true to the original comics.
And then there’s the rather wild rumor that Taskmaster is actually Hawkeye in disguise, which wouldn’t necessarily coincide with the MCU timeline, given how a large part of Black Widow is expected to take place in the period between Civil War and the aforementioned Infinity War.
In any case, all will be revealed when the MCU’s 24th installment makes its way into theaters in time for May 5th, 2020.