With Black widow in theaters and Disney Plus Premier Access July 9th, it’s time to get back to the Marvel Cinematic Universe in theaters, not just on TV shows. It’s been a while since we saw Natasha Romanoff! And the last time we did … she was dead.
That could be a problem if Black widow was played in the current MCU, but instead it’s a prequel. But even while watching the movie, it gets a little difficult to understand the timeline.
[Ed. note: The rest of this post contains spoilers for Black Widow.]
When is the Black Widow movie set?
During the events of Avengers: EndgameNatasha Romanoff sacrificed her own life on the planet Vormir so Hawkeye could get away with the soul stone. It seems that this will be the last we’ll see of Scarlett Johansson’s character – in the modern era of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
The Black widow The film takes place earlier in the MCU continuity, but not quite as far back as, for example Captain Marvelthat took place in the 1990s. Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige confirmed at San Diego Comic-Con 2019 that the film took place shortly after the events of Captain America: Civil War, that was the last MCU movie Black Widow appeared in before Infinity war and Endgame. But as the actual film makes it clear, the events actually take place while Civil war and on top of that, with an after-credits scene that jumps further into the future.
What happened to Black Widow in Captain America: Civil War?
Captain America: Civil War was mostly preoccupied with the fragmentation of the Avengers as a group, spurred on by an international superhero oversight resolution called the Sokovia Accord and the machinations of Baron Helmut Zemo.
in the Civil war, everyone was either Team Cap or Team Iron Man, and Natasha seemed to be on Tony Stark’s side. Until – turn! – She helped Captain America and Bucky escape from the scene of the Avengers airport battle. After a brief conversation with Iron Man about treason, she left the film with the suggestion that she was now on the run from the law.
The next time we saw her, she was in Avengers: Infinity War where she was actually on the run from the law alongside Captain America and the Falcon. Besides, she had turned blonde.
Black widow takes place during Civil war and then up front in advance Infinity war, between Natasha, who believes she will be on the run from the law, and actually on the run from the law. At the end of Black widow, Natasha jets in her stolen Avengers Quinjet to find Steve Rogers and help him break Ant-Man, Wanda Maximoff, Hawkeye, and the Falcon off the raft – Marvel’s infamous superprison on the ocean – an outbreak that will be the last Scene forms from Captain America: Civil War.
The whole movie doesn’t even take place between two different Marvel movies, but rather between two different scenes in a Marvel movie.
As for Black Widow’s flashbacks …
The new film also connects the dots in Black Widow’s genesis, but not in the way many fans expected. Our first taste of Natasha’s origins was during Avangers: Age of Ultron, in the form of Scarlet Witch-induced visions of the past.
The scene gave us – so far – our only glimpse of the infamous Red Room, the secret training program that spawned an elite class of female spies for the Russia of Marvel Comics.
Black widow Most of her time in the Red Room does not follow Natasha. Instead we meet her in 1995 in Ohio, where she worked with David Harbors Undercover-Red Guardian and Rachel Weisz’s Melina Vostokoff (the MCU version of Iron Maiden). Together with her “sister” Yelena, later played by Florence Pugh Yelena Belova, she is hunted by SHIELD – who was under HYDRA control at the time – and later moved to the Red Room. In the comics, Yelena is another Red Room graduate and even takes on the role of Natasha’s Black Widow at times.
All the action and drama comes to a head in the present, which is actually the past, because it is 2016 when Captain America: Civil War came out. But at some point the present becomes the future, and Yelena hopes to avenge her sister.
Dizzy? Time to watch the Marvel movies again.
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The latest Marvel Studios movie will be streamed at home on Disney Plus Premier Access for an additional fee
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