Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow is finally getting her turn in the spotlight.
Way back in 2010, Iron Man 2 introduced a scarlet-haired assassin named Natasha Romanoff, and over the next near-decade, the Marvel Cinematic Universe followed her as she helped found the Avengers, took down intergalactic threats, and ultimately saved the universe by sacrificing herself in this year’s Avengers: Endgame. The character may have met her demise in Endgame, but after years of appearing as a secondary character in other heroes’ movies, Natasha is now getting one of her own with the upcoming Black Widow.
Marvel released the Black Widow teaser trailer Tuesday, unveiling the first official look at Natasha’s solo adventures. Directed by Cate Shortland, the film is set after the events of Captain America: Civil War and finds Natasha grappling with the past she’s been outrunning.
“I used to have nothing,” she says in a voice-over. “And then I got this job, this family. But nothing lasts forever.”
The trailer includes flashes of Nat’s early life training to be an assassin in the Red Room, the elite KGB program teased in Avengers: Age of Ultron. She’s been trying to put her assassin days behind her with her work in the Avengers, but something forces her to dive back into that world, reuniting with old faces like Yelena, played by Midsommar’s Florence Pugh. Yelena and Nat’s first meeting in the trailer is brutal, as the pair violently grapple in an apartment, but there’s a mutual respect and love there: Soon the two are fighting alongside each other.
“We have unfinished business,” Nat says. “We have to go back to where it all started.”
Whatever that unfinished business is, it involves Natasha also apparently teaming up with Rachel Weisz’s Malena and David Harbour’s Alexei, a.k.a. the Red Guardian. In the comics, the Red Guardian is the Soviets’ attempt to create a Captain America of their own, and in the trailer, Harbour seems thrilled to be putting on the suit (although Malena quips that it used to fit him much better).
It’s an oddball group of allies, but it seems like Nat is going to need all the help she can get: The trailer also gives us our first proper look at the film’s big bad: the notorious Taskmaster. The Taskmaster’s identity has yet to be revealed, but in the comics, he’s a formidable foe, a mercenary who can instantly copy and absorb his opponent’s strengths and fighting skills.
One important thing to note: The trailer introduces Taskmaster using a bow and arrow, not unlike Nat’s longtime friend and ally Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner). That and the big, opening shots of Budapest seem to suggest that Black Widow might answer one of the MCU’s most enduring mysteries: what went down between Nat and Clint all those years ago and why they remember Budapest very differently.
In addition to the trailer, Marvel also released a teaser poster for the film.
Johansson and the Black Widow cast teased the film over the summer during San Diego Comic-Con, showing attendees some rough footage and opening up about how the film shows a new side of Natasha.
“Where we find Natasha in her life at this point is very specific,” Johansson told EW at the time. “She really is in a dark place where she’s got no one to call and nowhere to go. She’s really grappling with her own self. When something huge explodes and all the pieces are landing, you have that moment of stillness where you don’t know what to do next — that’s the moment that she’s in. In that moment, you actually have to face yourself.”
