What Secrets Might a Black Widow Movie Reveal?

Now that we know Marvel is returning to Comic-Con’s Hall H this July, we can start to speculate what they’re going to reveal in the grandest venue in San Diego. With Marvel’s Phase 3 about to officially come to a close with the release of Spider-Man: Far From Home, there’s a lot of change afoot at Disney’s super studio. They wouldn’t be taking over Hall H if they weren’t ready to share their vision of what’s to come. Which leads us to the still unannounced Black Widow film.

So here’s what we do know. Black Widow has (obviously) star Scarlett Johansson in the title role. It’s got a great up-and-coming director in Cate Shortland. It’s got a rumored cast that’s almost too good to be believed. Rachel Weisz! Rising star Florence Pugh (currently in Ari Aster’s upcoming Midsommar)! Stranger Things‘ David Harbour! If Marvel wanted to make waves (and they love making waves), officially announcing Black Widow at Comic-Con would be a start. Showing footage would be even better.

Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige recently teased what a “potential” Black Widow prequel could do. He was speaking with i09 at a press junket for Far From Home. “There’s a method to the madness,” Feige told io9. “There’s always a method and doing things in an unexpected way is something we find fun. There are ways to do prequels that are less informative or answer questions you didn’t necessarily have, and then there are ways to do prequels where you learn all sorts of things you never knew before.”

Feige went on to cite Better Call Saul as an example of a prequel that delivers so much more than redundant information or a mere set-up for a future you already know.

“I look at Better Call Saul as a wonderful example of a prequel that almost completely stands on its own apart from Breaking Bad because it informs you about so many things you didn’t know about before. So time will tell which way we’ve gone with a supposed Black Widow movie.”

“Supposed.” You have to hand it to Feige and Marvel, they do enjoy teasing us. If we can all agree that Black Widow is happening, which it is, we can start to wonder what some of these secrets could be. We have the extremely sad endpoint already in place thanks to Endgame. Spoiler alert—we know that Natasha Romanov sacrifices herself for the greater good. It was one of the most shocking moments in Endgame, made all the more heartbreaking because we know that for years now, Black Widow had finally felt like she found a family in the Avengers. Finding ourselves back in Moscow before Romanov is an Avenger opens up a wealth of potential secrets that could be revealed. Perhaps Natasha was a mole, working undercover at the behest of Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson). Perhaps she came into contact with other Marvel entities, villains and heroes both, and her history with them reveals new, surprising relationships? What happened to her during her training, and how bad did it get? Who did she come into contact with and how might it shape Phase 4?

Whatever those secrets may be, here’s to hoping that Rachel Weisz plays some sort of KGB spymaster. We can’t wait for the reveal of Black Widow at comic-con! (Fingers crossed).

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