The ongoing Coronavirus pandemic has seen the release of Black Widow delayed indefinitely, which pushed back the start of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Phase Four and may also have a knock-on effect towards some of the studio’s other projects that are in various stages of development.
Fans had been demanding for years that Scarlett Johansson’s Natasha Romanoff get her own solo movie, but unfortunately they had to wait until Avengers: Endgame killed her off in the main timeline for it to happen. With Black Widow being a prequel set immediately after the events of Captain America: Civil War though, many people were wondering how the events of the film would tie into the MCU’s bigger picture, especially with Endgame’s five-year time jump making 2023 the franchise’s ‘present day’.
If you recall, there were a huge number of reported leaks that hit the internet at the end of last year about Black Widow, which revealed some major plot points and also claimed that David Harbour’s Red Guardian was the worst part of the movie. Now, it looks like a new leak has made its way online, revealing the details of both of Black Widow’s post-credits scenes and matching up with a lot of what we heard a few months back.
Apparently, one of the stingers is nothing to write home about, as it features Jeremy Renner’s Hawkeye in the present day standing beside Natasha’s grave with his kids. Not only does this confirm once and for all that the former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent is definitely dead, but it also gives her a fitting sendoff that many complained was missing from Endgame.
The second post-credits scene is more interesting by far, and offers up the first big twist of Phase Four. The previous leaks already revealed that Rachel Weisz’s Melina Vostokoff was the real villain all along, but the end of the movie drops the bombshell that Florence Pugh’s Yelena Belova and O.T. Fagbenle’s Taskmaster have been working for William Hurt’s Thaddeus Ross, which will no doubt set them up to become recurring characters in the MCU going forward.
While these post-credits scenes can’t be officially confirmed as of yet, and the nature of how they tie into the next set of movies isn’t clear, Black Widow certainly looks set to overcome the shackles of being a prequel by laying solid narrative foundations for the rest of Phase Four.
