Marvel Characters the Black Widow Film Should Use

This week’s announcement that a standalone film featuring Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow is reportedly in the works at Marvel Studios is something that’s quite literally been years in the making. As early as 2014, MCU mainstays such as Robert Downey Jr., and even Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige, have been vocal about their desire to see the red-headed spy/assassin take center stage, and the character has been at the top of most fans’ “solo-treatment wish list” for practically just as long.

Let’s be honest, though – just because an MCU character is getting a standalone film doesn’t mean it’s going to be a solo film… At least not in the purest sense of the word. To date, there hasn’t been a single Marvel Studios standalone film that hasn’t featured at least one other character with ties to the greater MCU. Some have been minor, such as Nick Fury, Tony Stark and Thor popping up in the mid-credits scenes of Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk and Doctor Strange, respectively. But think about the other recent additions to the MCU’s ever-growing slate that featured a single character’s name in the title. Thor: Ragnarok was basically a cosmic buddy-cop outing with Thor and Hulk; Spider-Man: Homecoming heavily featured Iron Man, who served as the web-slinger’s mentor; and as for Captain America: Civil War – well, that was basically just Avengers 2.5.

None of this is to suggest that a Black Widow solo movie will inevitably rob the eponymous heroine of the spotlight she deserves. All it means is that fans should probably expect to see some other familiar faces from the Marvel mythos, be it the comic books or the MCU proper, should Marvel Studios continue to move forward with the project.

With that in mind, here are some characters we’d love to see appear alongside Scarlett Johansson in a Black Widow.

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Hawkeye

Why not get the most obvious choice out of the way first?

When they shared the screen for the first time in 2012’s The Avengers, Marvel Studios firmly established there was a longstanding history between Black Widow and Jeremy Renner’s Clint Barton/Hawkeye. So firmly, in fact, that many fans believed the implication was that the two were – at least at one point in time – a romantic item. It wasn’t until Avengers: Age of Ultron that those theories were put to rest with the revelation of Hawkeye’s wife and children, who lived off-the-grid in a safe house.

Nevertheless, we still know that Black Widow and Hawkeye are very close (Clint’s wife was even going to name their next child after her), and we saw footage in The Avengers depicting one of the duo’s previous exploits, so they’ve definitely been on missions together prior to the formation of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. Perhaps we could even see that very mission we got a glimpse of in The Avengers play out in its entirety, a la the recreation of the photo Bruce gives to Diana in Wonder Woman.

Winter Soldier

Another current MCU character Black Widow has an on-screen history with is Sebastian Stan’s Bucky Barnes, aka the Winter Soldier. Upon making his Marvel Studios debut in 2014’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier, we learned that Bucky and Natasha aren’t exactly strangers, as evidenced by the gunshot scar Black Widow credited with ruining bikini season for her. Looking to the comics, though, the pair shares an even deeper connection.

After being trained in combat and espionage at the infamous Red Room facility, Natasha was drafted into the KGB. It was around this time that she first met the Winter Soldier, who provided her with additional training before the two eventually fell in love. In fact, this was also around the time Natasha first received the “Black Widow” moniker, so if the film were going to be an origin story, Bucky’s involvement would be all the more fitting, especially considering Johansson’s own desires for Black Widow.

“She’s got a really rich origins story,” Johansson said in 2016 while discussing her ideas for a Black Widow film. “There’s a lot of places you can go — you can bring it back to Russia. You could explore the Widow program. There’s all kinds of stuff that you could do with it. You could really uncover the identity of who this person is, where she comes from and where she’s part of.”

Daredevil

If ever there were a reason for Kevin Feige to lift his seemingly self-imposed ban on Marvel’s Netflix properties crossing over with the films, it should be to bring Charlie Cox’s Matt Murdock/Daredevil to the Black Widow movie. While the characters have never interacted on-screen, they’ve partnered up on countless occasions in the comics, and the two struck up a romantic relationship that lasted for several years.

After Black Widow’s first solo feature in Amazing Adventures was dropped, she began co-starring in Daredevil, beginning with issue #81 in 1971. She would remain a supporting character in that series for four years until issue #124, and the book was even cover titled Daredevil and the Black Widow for issues #93-108.

During this time, Natasha and Matt lived together in San Francisco, while simultaneously teaming up to fight crime as Black Widow and Daredevil. Eventually, they split up due to Black Widow feeling like she was living in Daredevil’s shadow, though she was still shown to have amorous feelings towards him.

Obviously, a Black Widow film needn’t follow in these footsteps, as fans would likely be much more receptive to movie highlighting the character, herself, rather than her romance with Daredevil. If nothing else, though, their comic book roots set the precedent for, at the very least, a Charlie Cox cameo.

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Yelena Belova

While most associate “Black Widow” with Natasha Romanoff, she’s hardly the only one to hold that title. In Inhumans #5 (March 1999), Marvel debuted the second Black Widow, Yelena Belova, who was initially dispatched by the Red Room to stop Natasha from acquiring the Endless Fury Serum.

The two Black Widows are generally depicted as enemies, and in one of their most bizarre encounters, Natasha had her face surgically replaced with that of Yelena so she could investigate an arms dealer without compromising her own identity. If Marvel Studios is looking for a way to keep the Black Widow legacy alive when Johansson’s contract is up, this is definitely a creative and comic-book-accurate way to bring in another actress for the role.

Lady Liberators

Yes, this is technically cheating since the Lady Liberators aren’t a single character. Still, with the recent call for an all-female Marvel team-up movie – not to mention speculation that Black Widow could actually be that movie – we’ll make an exception.

The Lady Liberators was a 1970s all-female team created by Enchantress, who disguised herself as Valkyrie to manipulate other female heroes into doing her bidding. The original lineup included current MCU characters such as the Wasp, Scarlet Witch and Black Widow, and the team was re-formed in 2008, with She-Hulk as its leader.

In October, at a press junket for Thor: Ragnarok, Valkyrie actress Tessa Thompson cited the Lady Liberators as one of the inspirations behind the idea for a female-led, Avengers-style film, which she, Scarlett Johansson, Zoe Saldana, Pom Klementieff, Karen Gillan and Brie Larson all approached Kevin Feige to discuss.

Given the work Johansson has put in for the better part of the last decade working with Marvel Studios, turning Black Widow into a full-fledged Lady Liberators film probably isn’t the best course of action. That’s not to say it couldn’t help set it up by including an appearance from one or more of the other female MCU characters, though.

Before she goes solo, Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow is set to appear in Avengers: Infinity War, which arrives in theaters on May 28. Directed by Joe and Anthony Russo, the film also stars Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man, Chris Evans as Captain America, Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Mark Ruffalo as the Hulk, Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye, Anthony Mackie as the Falcon, Paul Rudd as Ant-Man, Elizabeth Olsen as Scarlet Witch, Tom Holland as Spider-Man, Benedict Cumberbatch as Doctor Strange, Chadwick Boseman as Black Panther, Chris Pratt as Star Lord, Zoe Saldana as Gamora, Dave Bautista as Drax, Bradley Cooper as Rocket, Vin Diesel as Groot, Tom Hiddleston as Loki and Josh Brolin as Thanos.