Black Widow Preview : Breakdowns and Theories!

    Welcome back to HLS Entertainment! Today we are going to be covering the long awaited Black Widow movie that was Marvel's biggest victim of pandemic movie pushbacks. This film was supposed to kick off Phase Four in Spring of 2020 but is now releasing on July 9th 2021 in theaters as well as Premier Access on Disney+. Quick note, if you have followed me on twitter you probably know I have a long standing beef with movies going straight to streaming, please see this movie in theaters and support the dying industry. Go in there and just have yourself a night, the theater's makes money off concessions primarily not ticket sales, go spoil yourself with giant ole popcorn and candy. Treat yourself. 

    This is going to be SPOILER FILLED, so heads up now. This is not a oh I have inside sources so I know the movie, this is a breakdown of what we can expect the movie to be based on the trailers, the Marvel Cinematic Universe as a whole, rumors, theories, etc. nothing said here is confirmed information it is just simply spoiler THEORIES not spoiler LEAKS.

    Back to Black Widow. This movie is going to be Marvel Studios first "prequel", well debatably. I say debatably because I guess period piece films like Captain America the First Avenger and Captain Marvel might count as a prequel? But I personally think if it is the character first introduction it is not a prequel like the two Captain's films. Therefore I am calling this Marvel Studios first prequel, fingers crossed. With it being a prequel we are going to be going over the probable time periods that we could see in this movie, as well as locations, characters and plot breakdowns! 

    I have done many of these previews for each show this year like Loki, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and WandaVision, and have a pretty solid track record if I say so myself. So if you enjoy my breakdowns please hit me up on twitter @HaroldLStokes I would love to discuss them with you as well as please share this with your friends! On to the breakdown!

Locations

Budapest

    Ah Budapest, we have been hearing and thinking about what happened in you since 2012's Avengers. Well, nine years later we are finally getting the answer. 

    "Reminds me of Budapest"

    Well, maybe. We know for a fact our hero Natasha Romanoff is going back to Budapest in this movie, but it seems to be during the time period between Civil War and Infinity War. But that does not mean we will not see some flashbacks of what happened. I would be SHOCKED if we do not find out what happened in Budapest.

Random Russian frozen locals

     Natasha is Russian, I expect we are getting a lot of Mother Russia, beautiful landscapes, a prison and a possible missile silo or two. But not just Russia this film seems to be a true globetrotting experience.

Time Periods

    This is the confusing part for a lot of people so I am going to lay it out. We are primarily going to be in the 2016 gap after Captain America Civil War where Black Widow as well as the rest of Team Cap is on the run from the world's governments, but before Infinity War in 2018. 

    We also will supposedly be seeing other time periods like possibly Natasha's time before joining S.H.I.E.L.D. (2006-ish) and maybe 2023-2024 post Endgame? But we will get to that later on

Characters To Know

Who we know will show up

Natasha Romanoff / Black Widow - Scarlett Johansson

    One of the founding six members in the MCU Avengers we have known Natasha for a long time, and we were introduced to her all the way back in 2010. Technically Natasha is the third Avenger we meet, as she was introduced in Ironman 2, but technically Scarlett Johansson is the second of our mainstay core six Avengers we met because of the Hulk recasting from Edward Norton to Mark Ruffalo. Point being is this, Scarlett Johansson has been doing this since movie three in the MCU and now, in movie twenty-four, she finally gets her own solo movie. About time.

    From the information we know about Black Widow, she was raised in the Red Room in Russia. The Red Room is a top secret Soviet Spy program that brainwashed and trained generations of young women turning them into the world's deadliest assassins. Natasha earned the mantle of Black Widow, by being the best of the best. She worked for Russia and the Red Room for years before eventually getting out after our very own Clint Barton Hawkeye was sent to take her out but made another call and brought her in instead. She traded in the KGB for S.H.E.I.L.D. and now is on the side of the angels. Or so she thought.

    A big turning point in Natasha's journey was the collapse of S.H.E.I.L.D. because of Hydra growing within it in Captain America Winter Soldier. Which side note we get a story of her having a previous run in with Bucky as the Winter Soldier so that could also be a cool flashback to get. Natasha thought she had gone straight and then becomes morally confused questioning if she has been doing good this whole time or just secretly doing the will of Hydra. As someone who had been brainwashed this is huge for her.

    Something I want to talk about is a few lines we got in Endgame talking about Natasha not knowing who her family was and not having one, but then in this trailer we are shown this make shift family unit that she belonged to. That is what it is, I believe the grouping of Natasha, Yelena, Melina and Alexie is similar to what you see in shows like "The Americans" where Russian spies pose as a family as sleeper cells and spies in other countries.

Yelena Belova - Florence Pugh

    Yelena Belova has not been introduced into the MCU yet so the best we can do is go off the comics and piece it together with the trailers. Yelena Belova is younger than Natasha and trained in the Red Room after she did and is posed as her "younger sister" in their family group. Natural sibling rivalry should happen here. But, in the comics it is much more than that, Yelena is straight up jealous of Natasha and has been fighting and training her entire life to supplant her taking over the mantle of Black Widow.

    Black Widow is a title, just like Captain America, there is a pattern to this phase. Introducing successors, variants, fakes, and copies of to our favorite heroes and villains. Keep that in mind.

    I chose that image of Yelena very specifically, it is hard to see but there seems to be surgical lines drawn across the outer edges of her face. This could be an entire misdirect or could be a direct tease to one of the most popular Black Widow comic stories, "Breakdown". In this story Natasha and Nick Fury do something insanely drastic to teach Yelena a lesson about how the KGB and the Red Room do not care about her, they do a face swap. Natasha drugs and does this to Yelena without her knowledge. Then using S.H.I.E.L.D. resources to convince Yelena that she is really Natasha as well as getting orders to her to kill Yelena. Yelena being face swapped Natasha. This is not a happy ending story for Yelena but she does learn to not whole heartedly trust Russia or the Red Room.

Alexei Shostakov / Red Guardian  - David Harbour

    Alexie was a pilot and war hero who was trained to be the Russian version of Captain America, Red Guardian. It is probably a safe assumption based on the trailers that he has some form of super soldier serum made by Russia but no telling how strong he actually is. During his youth he was a kinder man and grew cruel during his years working for Russia, which seemingly ended with his imprisonment (maybe was locked up for helping Natasha defect?)

    This film seems to start with his prison escape, maybe Natasha is getting the old family back together again for one last mission.

Melina Vostokoff / Iron Maiden - Rachel Weisz

    In the comics Melina is a rival of Black Widow's also known as Iron Maiden after she leaves the Red Room to become an assassin for hire and mercenary. In this movie she seems to be set up as the maternal figure in this make shift spy family who helped raise Natasha and Yelena before their training in the Red Room.

    

    I believe she might be the least willing to team up again with the family, and will possibly be teased to be the real identity of the villain of this movie.. but more on that later.

Secretary Thaddeus Ross - William Hurt

    General "Thunderbolt" Ross has been around even longer than Natasha in the MCU as he was the 2008 Hulk solo movie's antagonist. The real question I have here is WHEN is he in this story, in the trailer he seems to be both de-aged and aged up in certain clips. So while the assumption is that his scenes take place after Captain America Civil War and before Infinity War where he is in both the Secretary of Defense for the United States government, this could be other time periods as well.

    One thing I want to bring back up to have in the back of your mind. The entire plot with the 2008 Hulk movie revolved around Ross' obsession with recreating (what we did not realize at the time) Captain America's super soldier serum, which Red Guardian seems to have something similar. So While we assume yes he is after Natasha after she betrayed team Ironman and let Cap and Bucky escape, he could be trying to capture Alexei for experimentations. 

Dreykov - Ray Winstone

    Dreykov played by Ray Winstone is a very high ranking Russian operative who is in charge and leads the Red Room. We have very little information about this character aside from a line from Avengers 

    

    "Can you wipe out that much red? Dreykov's Daughter? Sao Paulo? The Hospital Fire? Barton told me everything. Your ledger is dripping, it's gushing red..." - Loki to Black Widow

    This line is Loki calling out Natasha for the horrors of her past before joining S.H.E.I.L.D. and trying to manipulate her while she is really working him. The line can be taking many different way but one specific thing we can probably hold onto, Dreykov assumingly wants vengeance on Natasha for whatever she did to his daughter, whether that be she killed her or set her free we do not know. One theory that I had was maybe Yelena is his daughter.

Mason / Taskmaster - O-T Fagbenle

    Okay this is the biggest jump in theory we have for a character. The identity of Taskmaster has still been kept a secret but I am working under the assumption that O-T Fagbenle who is labeled as "Mason" is actually playing Taskmaster. We have been told that Mason is a possible former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent and maybe a former love interest of Black Widow's. 

    I am not sure I believe either of those things. We have seen Taskmaster being given orders by Dreykov to (assumingly) hunt down Natasha. I believe he is the new big secret weapon/spy of the Red Room who is now, given her fallout with the US and world governments, being assigned to hunt down Black Widow for leaving Russian control. 

    Taskmaster very quickly in the comics can perfectly copy anyone's fighting techniques and commonly steals their technology as well. In this movie I believe we will see Taskmaster use something from nearly every hero (or villain) that we have seen in the MCU up until Civil War. Here is a list of  possible powers/equipment/weapons/skills stolen from other MCU characters that we should expect as seen in trailers but we should expect even more not yet seen.

    Black Widow fighting style - Also every other Avengers fighting styles

    Cap shield

    BP Claws

    Hawkeye Bow

    Spidey webbing

Who MIGHT show up - Don't get mad at me there are a couple crazy ones...

Winter Guard- Dark Star, Ursa Major, Red Widow, Crimson Dynamo, Vostok

    The Winter Guard very simply is Russian Avengers, just throwing the whole group here so we know what possible names to look out for.

Hawkeye / Clint Barton - Jeremy Renner

    I mean there is no way Hawkeye does not show up right? Between Budapest possible flashbacks and these two characters have been basically brother and sister for as long as we have seen them together. I will be shocked if Jeremy Renner does not show up in this movie. My specific wild prediction? He meets with Yelena possibly in a post credit scene to set him up as her connection to the rest of the Avengers as she takes over the Black Widow mantle going forward.

Nick Fury

    Samuel L Jackson just pops up everywhere, and with Natasha being his number one spy I imagine he might pop in. Why did I chose a picture from Captain Marvel? Because he also has a connection to Budapest as he said he always chose missions in places that started with 'b's' so he could make them rhyme. That is alliteration not rhyming Fury.

Tony Stark / Ironman - Robert Downey jr.

    There were rumors for a while that RDJ had a "cameo" (Deadline) in this, I imagine it is just in voice only, possibly background role setting up Crimson Dynamo? Flashback of 2006 pre Ironman pre Natasha defecting maybe she stole some of his tech? I am not sure I just had to put this here because of the rumors.

A member of Team Cap 

    This is very broad but something that might be likely. Seemingly this movie ends with Natasha joining back up with Team Cap and continuing to be on the run before Avengers Infinity War. My guess would be seeing the conversation where they all agreed to stay close and in contact because of this movie. I say this because she kind of reminds/scolds Wanda of this after they arrive to help her in the beginning of Infinity War. 

    Let us rule some out, we know Hawkeye and Ant-Man took house arrest after Civil War to be with their families. Chris Evans MIGHT be returning to the MCU but no time soon (though I would be wrong to not point out the rumors of his return could possibly be for a cameo in this movie). So that leaves the trio of Sam, Bucky and Wanda. All three who were in Disney+ shows recently and could have easily filmed a short scene or two before filming their shows.

Plot Breakdown

    I am going to be going through how I see this plot playing out for this movie big plot point by point act by act. Once again spoilers? This is all theorizing based off trailers but if you want to go in blind to the plot of the movie you can end the blog here or skip past to more wild theories at the bottom. So here we go.

    I believe this movie starts off with Natasha going to Budapest to hide/retrieve something. Maybe she believes this is time to clean some more of the red from her ledger and take out the Red Room. After arriving at the safehouse in Budapest it is revealed Yelena is there waiting for her, they fight and this is the first time we see how mirrored their fighting is because they have had the same training they reach a stalemate until Natasha switches up her fighting style (probably some tricks she picked up from Cap). 

    

   
    They chat for a bit while Natasha retrieves what she came there for until the Red Room Widows (Red Widows?) break through the ceiling they go on the run in Budapest, Taskmaster is revealed to be there hunting them. We should probably question whether Yelena is there to help or sent to capture Natasha. We get fighting, car chase and escape scenes until they some how escape. We see the pair are at a restaurant eating coming up with a plan to free the other Widows/stop their plan, they decide they are going to need more help.

    This is where we get into the weeds of what the Red Room / Russia's plans are during the middle of the second act, and the prototypical get the team together sequences. They have done an amazing job of very carefully hidden the plan in the trailer it seems to be some satellite launch or some giant tower that Natasha and fam will have to take out. Some people think it could possibly be something with Pym particles as we see Natasha holding a red veil at certain points (including on her Funko pop for this movie). I personally do not think it is Pym particles but rather possibly being something the Red Room uses to brainwash and control the Widows.

    They help break their "father" Alexei / Red Guardian out of prison, recruit their "mother" Melina and they go back "home" where they lived together. Melina is probably hesitant to help fight the Red Room after being out for so long, until they eventually convince her and she reveals this little toy room of spy gear (is that a facial reconstruction/mask maker akin to what is used in nearly every Mission Impossible movie over her shoulder??) They all get suited up this is wear we get the Red Guardian "still fits" scene, and once night falls Taskmaster and Widows arrive to try to kill them.

   

    They escape or lay some trap here to slow them down (possible spot for a Taskmaster identity reveal? Ross reveal to be working with them?). They are going to the giant building / satellite we keep seeing miniscule glimpses of in the trailers. I am thinking there could be some nuclear power ties because seems to be nuclear powered and possibly Natasha and crew causes an avalanche on purpose to flood and stop whatever is happening there. I want to say this avalanche scene could be from earlier or just part 1 of the mission and here are two examples. A- this could be the prison area where Alexei is prisoner and they help break him out. But the one I am think B-  this is Yelena and Natasha thwarting Dreykov's plans BEFORE they go to the tower/satellite/Russian Helicarrier whatever it is.

   

    At some point we get to the giant mid air climax fight sequence, maybe Yelena gets captured during the first part of the mission and Natasha has to go save her while Alexei and Melina take on Taskmaster? Maybe that is the scene where we see Yelena strapped to a table looking like surgery prep. I imagine instead of the whole Face Off tease it could be Dreykov trying to implant whatever it is he uses to control those in the Red Room.

    Then we get the culminating moment of Yelena and Natasha up in the air fighting Taskmaster and crew until they get to the moment of deciding to stop them once and for all potentially sacrificing themselves. Big fight, mid air explosion Natasha fighting Taskmaster while falling thousands of feet. 

    

    This is where I am honestly reaching with the trailer because possibly one or both of Alexei or and Melina might die in their final fight against Taskmaster on the ground here. I hope they really show how great he can copy peoples fighting styles and technique so Alexei and Melina can not stop him. Then either a team up of Natasha and Yelena, or possibly just Natasha step up to take him out. This is where the mirroring of fighting styles really pays off because I imagine we get amazing shot of Natasha and Yelena using more brawler less technique style of fighting and taking him out in more unique fighting choreography from Black Widow opposed to her jumping and wrapping her legs around someone's head for the millionth time. 

    I imagine we get a quiet moment after this final battle then we here trucks and SUVs speeding towards them as General Ross shows up to take Natasha in  because she is still on the run and her going willingly. Also what an incredible set up for that to happen then one of the members of Team Cap breaks her out of custody in a post credit scene. Something that I believe is set up here, is Natasha being impressed and proud of Yelena and telling her she can do whatever she wants and encourages her to possibly take over the Black Widow mantle. 

    

    Like personally this could be an awesome as hell scene to end the movie of having our new Black Widow, Yelena, possibly in modern day MCU 2023-2024 now on the run from Ross and she is doing good deeds taking out evil doers. But part of Ross' job is to hunt down the violators of the Sokovia Accords.

Theories

    Here is a quick run down of some theories I like, couple I do not and one of those that I hate. 

    We could get a montage of Red Room agents being activated around the world for assassination attempts. Including one (or more) being activated in Wakanda and this being post Civil War we could see Bucky stopping them saving T'Challa. This could be where Bucky gets the White Wolf title, but at the same time the Red Room spy could steal Black Panthers old suit tech for Taskmaster.

    Maybe One of these assassination attempts is on Secretary Ross and he survives but thinks it was Natasha and that is why he is so heavily after her. Also dealing with Ross, he could possibly even recruit Yelena to sign the accords and join the Thunderbolts team he is putting together.

  

     "I tried to bring her back I really tried" - Hulk, I have a love/hate relationship with this one. What if the possible face swap DOES happen and never gets reversed.. So the Natasha in Infinity War / Endgame was really Yelena. It could explain the sudden blonde hair and the vest see wears. Therefore, Hulk could not bring Natasha back, because she is still alive and Florence Pugh is going to be our Natasha Romanoff going forward.

   

    Another one I will put here but I disagree with is some people seem to be convinced that Melina IS Taskmaster. I do not think this is true I think it is Mason, but that does not mean that Melina could not be one of the Widows hunting Natasha down to start the movie in Budapest. Or even having her betray them but I do not believe she is Taskmaster, Yelena refers to Taskmaster as a he and if she knows this much about the Widow program since Natasha left I imagine she knows who he is.

    Another theory very shortly Yelena is Dreykov's daughter, "bring her to me" his one line from the trailer could refer to bringing Yelena back in. As that pertains to Natasha's red in her ledger, it could be she helped fake Yelena's death and got blamed for it and now Dreykov knows she is alive he wants her back for him to control.

    Thank you so much for reading! Leave your comments below what you expect from the movie I would love to hear your theories! Or hit me up on Twitter @HaroldLStokes, give me a follow and share some theories, I can not wait for July 9th! Please share with your friends!