The new Marvel film “Black Widow” featured a post credits scene as expected but this one was actually different than many others in the history of the studio…
By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer
SPOILERS AHEAD IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN BLACK WIDOW
A long wait to finally see “Black Widow” on the big screen came to an end this past weekend as the Scarlett Johansson led solo film landed in theaters following a lengthy delay due to the global pandemic.
The timing of the movie was odd regardless of whether it was released in 2020 or 2021 because ultimately “Black Widow” was a standalone story with the time period for the film taking place just after the events of “Captain America: Civil War.”
Obviously the film also served as an origin story of sorts for Johansson’s character, who first appeared in the Marvel Cinematic Universe all the way back in 2010 in “Iron Man 2.” Since that time, Natasha Romanoff aka Black Widow had been a mainstay in numerous Marvel films including all of “The Avengers” movies.
Sadly, Natasha met her demise in “Avengers: Endgame,” which made the timing for her own solo movie that much stranger considering the character had already been eliminated from the MCU moving forward. Of course the new film could have somehow changed that tragic ending but that wasn’t the case as the post credits scene revealed that Natasha is still very much dead and being mourned by her friends and family.
And that brings us to the context behind that post credits scene and what it means for the future of some of these characters as well as the relationship to the movies and the series currently airing on Disney+.
Thanks to “WandaVision,” “The Falcon and The Winter Soldier” and “Loki,” there’s no doubt that Marvel is heavily invested in the success of these shows on Disney+ but the ties to these shows by way of “Black Widow” makes that connection even stronger.
In the closing moments of the film, Natasha’s “sister” Yelena Belova {played by Florence Pugh} is visiting her gravestone and placing flowers as a memorial. Considering when the story takes place in “Black Widow,” Yelena would be visiting Natasha’s grave approximately seven years after the movie due to “Avengers: Endgame” taking place in 2023 — five years after “the blip” when Thanos wiped out half of life in the universe.
Of course it’s possible Yelena disappeared in the blip — but that’s not made clear in the movie.
As Yelena arrives in Ohio to place flowers on her sister’s grave, she’s visited by a woman named Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (played by Julia Louis Dreyfus), who obviously has a past relationship with the former Black Widow assassin. Of course, Val first debuted in the MCU during “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” when she paid former Captain America John Walker a visit and recruited him to join a new team she was building while transforming him into the U.S. Agent.
Val has been described as a behind-the scenes power broker, not unlike those agents who founded organizations like S.H.I.E.L.D. or even HYDRA, but her true intentions have yet to be revealed.
Yelena remarked that de Fontaine was desperate for seeking her out while she was on vacation paying respect to her sister and that she wanted a raise, which furthered the notion that they have been working together for quite some time.
De Fontaine then told Yelena that she had a new mission for her — to go after the man responsible for her sister Natasha’s death.
With that, Val shows Yelena a photo of Clint Barton aka Hawkeye, who was with Natasha on Vormir where they were forced to sacrifice one of their lives in order to obtain the soul infinity stone. While Clint attempted to sacrifice himself, it was ultimately Natasha who plunged to her death thus revealing the soul stone to complete the new Infinity Gauntlet.
Now it appears Val is sending Yelena after Clint Barton while making her believe that he was actually responsible for Natasha’s death.
That leads us to the upcoming “Hawkeye” series where Jeremy Renner will reprise his role as Clint Barton while also training a new Hawkeye named Kate Bishop, who will be played by Hailee Steinfeld. Production on “Hawkeye” has already wrapped with Pugh set to appear in all eight episodes, which goes to show just how much of an impact she’ll have on the series not to mention the influence that de Fontaine will appear to have in the MCU going forward.
This also reveals just how much Marvel wants you invested in the TV series because this is the first time a film had ended with a post credits scene that leads specifically to a show rather than another movie.
With “Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” coming in September followed by “The Eternals” and “Spider-Man: No Way Home” all set for release before the end of the year, there will be plenty of opportunities for Marvel to bounce between films and TV series on Disney+.
At least we now know for certain that the post credit scene in “Black Widow” will lead us directly into the “Hawkeye” series that seems destined to debut sooner rather than later on Disney+.
