Black Widow Trailer Promises to Bring Scarlett Johansson Home

A new Black Widow trailer has arrived. Disney and Marvel have unveiled a new two-minute trailer for the Scarlett Johansson-led movie that at times plays out like a montage of Black Widow’s (Johansson) time in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, from The Avengers, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Captain America: Civil War (Black Widow is set following this), and Avengers: Endgame. It gives us a proper look at Taskmaster (possibly Olivier Richters, though unconfirmed as yet) — this time in daylight. Black Widow is the first film in Phase Four of the MCU, delayed multiple times due to COVID-19.

“You don’t know everything about me, I’ve lived a lot of lives,” Natasha Romanoff (Johansson) says at the start of the new Black Widow trailer, in what almost sounds like justification for her movie’s existence. “Before I was an Avenger, before I got this family, I made mistakes choosing between what the world wants you to be, and who you are.” The new Black Widow trailer then runs through that aforementioned montage, before jumping into what this new standalone movie of hers will offer.

Natasha runs her into sister-figure Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh) who asks her: “Where did you think I was all this time?” Allow me, Natasha, the correct answer to that is you didn’t exist (in the MCU). The new Black Widow trailer also shows us a young Natasha with pastel blue-coloured hair, and what looks like a digitally de-aged David Harbour, who plays Natasha and Yelena’s father-figure Alexei Shostakov/ Red Guardian. Elsewhere, her mother-figure Melina Vostokoff (Rachel Weisz) apologises to Natasha.

The new Black Widow trailer also introduces Dreykov (Ray Winstone), the head of the Red Room where all of Natasha, Yelena, and Melina trained. “Bring her home,” Dreykov tells Taskmaster — the villain capable of mimicking his opponents’ fighting styles. Cue a bunch of action scene snippets that involve Taskmaster showing off his skills, including an advanced bow and arrow. The new Black Widow trailer ends with Natasha reiterating what this movie is essentially about: “I’m done running from my past.”

In addition to Johansson, Richters, Pugh, Harbour, Weisz and Winstone, Black Widow also stars O-T Fagbenle as SHIELD agent Rick Mason and William Hurt as US Secretary of State Thaddeus Ross. There is a cameo role for Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark/ Iron Man. Cate Shortland (Somersault) directs Black Widow off a screenplay by Eric Pearson (Godzilla vs. Kong) and a story from Jac Schaeffer (WandaVision) and Ned Benson (The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby). Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige is the producer on Black Widow.

Here’s the official synopsis for Black Widow, from Disney and Marvel:

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.

Black Widow is out July 9 in cinemas in India and worldwide. It will also be available July 9 on Disney+ with Premier Access in select markets. It will likely release October 8 on Disney+ Hotstar. In India, Black Widow will release in English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, and Kannada.