The Past & the Future Collide in Black Widow “Legacy” Featurette

Yesterday, Marvel released a brand new Black Widow “Special Look” that gave us fresh footage from the first stand-alone feature for Scarlett Johansson’s iconic super-assassin. It also revealed a better glimpse at the film’s nominal villain—the Taskmaster—whose identity has been a closely guarded secret. Today, Marvel has released a new featurette entitled “Legacy,” which looks at the history of Johansson’s character, dating all the way back to her first appearance in the Marvel Cinematic Universe in Iron Man 2.

Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow has one of the richest backstories of any Avenger. “Before I worked for S.H.I.E.L.D., I made mistakes,” Romanoff says in the featurette, hinting at her dark past as a KGB-trained assassin. In director Cate Shortland’s Black Widow, we’ll finally get a full-length film devoted to this tortured superhero, one who can’t rely on superpowers to complete her missions or protect herself or her loved ones. While every Avenger carries their share of heartache and trauma, Black Widow is the one member of the team that used to be committed to the wrong side of history, so to speak.

“Very few actors can say they’ve worked on a character for ten years and then suddenly have this chance to delve deep into the inner-workings of this person,” Johansson says in the featurette. Marvel CEO and president Kevin Feige goes on to say that the Black Widow stand-alone film is the one movie people have been asking Marvel to make for a very long time. “More so than any other film,” he adds. Johansson promises that Black Widow will be a different flavor for the Marvel universe, while director Cate Shortland says she’s excited to introduce this very non-classic hero. “She’s got a dark past,” Shortland says.

Black Widow will shed more light on the program run by the KGB that turned women like Natasha—and her sister Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh)—into super assassins known as Black Widows. Natasha has returned to Moscow because she’s on the run, and she’s enlisting the help of Yelena and the rest of her so-called family to help take care of some “unfinished business.” That family includes David Harbour‘s Alexei Shostakov (also known as the Red Guardian) and Rachel Weisz’s Melina Vostokoff. Joining Johansson, Harbour, and Weisz are O-T Fagbenle, Rachel Weisz, and Ray Winstone.

Check out the new featurette here.

Black Widow hits theaters on May 1, 2020.

Here’s the official synopsis:

In Marvel Studios’ action-packed spy thriller “Black Widow,” Natasha Romanoff aka Black Widow confronts the darker parts of her ledger when a dangerous conspiracy with ties to her past arises. Pursued by a force that will stop at nothing to bring her down, Natasha must deal with her history as a spy and the broken relationships left in her wake long before she became an Avenger. Scarlett Johansson reprises her role as Natasha/Black Widow, Florence Pugh stars as Yelena, David Harbour portrays Alexei/The Red Guardian, and Rachel Weisz is Melina. Directed by Cate Shortland and produced by Kevin Feige, “Black Widow”—the first film in Phase Four of the Marvel Cinematic Universe—hits U.S. theaters on May 1, 2020.

Featured image: Marvel Studios’ AVENGERS: ENDGAME. Black Widow/Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson). Photo: Film Frame. ©Marvel Studios 2019