WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Marvel's Black Widow, playing in theaters and on Disney+ Premier Access.
Black Widow director Cate Shortland revealed why she decided to not show Natasha Romanoff's funeral in the latest Marvel Cinematic Universe film.
"Scarlett [Johansson] talked to me about it: Her character would have hated a public funeral," Shortland told Variety. "So I felt like the fact that she's buried in a really private place, in the boondocks somewhere, is perfect."
The post-credits Black Widow scene shows where Romanoff was laid to rest following her death in Avengers: Endgame. In the scene, Yelena (Florence Pugh) is shown pulling up to a location in the woods in a truck with her pet dog. She then walks up to a gravestone, which bears the name of the former Black Widow and reads, "Daughter, Sister, Avenger."
At the grave, Yelena encounters Contessa Valentina Allegra de la Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), who explains she is "paying her respects" before handing the new Black Widow a photo and telling her, "I've got your next target -- thought I'd hand-deliver it." She then unveils her real reason for being there, saying, "Maybe you’d like a shot at the man responsible for your sister's death." The man in the photo is none other than Clint Barton, a.k.a. Hawkeye, who was with Romanoff during her final moments.
Fans will recall that Romanoff sacrificed herself in Endgame in order to help bring back the 50 percent of the population that was snapped away by Thanos. However, Johansson recently shared that Marvel President Kevin Feige hesitated when telling her about the character's death.
"Kevin Feige called me, our boss at Marvel; I think he was nervous to tell me and sad about it, saying something along the lines of, ‘We all expected that there would have to be some big sacrifices,'" Johansson recalled about hearing the news. "It didn’t surprise me that that was a choice that Nat would have made. I knew that she had to feel at peace with that decision and that she was doing it out of love. It had to feel like she was resolved in that decision and that decision was hers. And that it wasn’t something that was happening to her because so much of her life has happened to her."
Directed by Cate Shortland, Black Widow stars Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow, Florence Pugh as Yelena Belova, David Harbour as Alexei Shostakov/Red Guardian, O-T Fagbenle as Mason and Rachel Weisz as Melina Vostokoff. The film is now in theaters and available on Disney+ Premier Access.
Source: Variety