Rachel Weisz Will Be Playing A Different Black Widow In The MCU

Up until recently, we really didn’t have a good idea of what form and shape the standalone Black Widow pic was going to take. That all changed a week or so ago though, when Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige and a handful of MCU actors took to Hall H at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con to finally reveal what was in store for fans as we move into Phase 4 of the franchise.

In a few short days, we heard Taskmaster would be serving as the film’s main villain, and we also got confirmation that the movie will take place after the events of Captain America: Civil War and (presumably) before Avengers: Infinity War. Better yet, Marvel also pulled back the curtain on the project’s cast.

While we always knew Scarlett Johansson would reprise her role as Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow, it’s been confirmed that David Harbour (of Stranger Things and Hellboy fame) is starring as Red Guardian, a Russian super-soldier who serves as a counterpart to Captain America.

We also heard Florence Pugh would be playing… Black Widow, and that Rachel Weisz is starring as… Black Widow? As IGN reports (via Screen Rant), it turns out the MCU is handling things differently than the comics. As opposed to giving the mantle of Black Widow to the best operative, the MCU’s version of the Red Room (the Soviet brainwashing and training program) has produced multiple spies and assassins who use the Black Widow moniker.

It’s an interesting choice and design decision and personally, we would love to see a few different spy names in action. That being said, as long as the film doesn’t refer to every operative as Black Widow (let’s stick to first names please), we should be good.