Marvel Studios' Black Widow will find Scarlett Johansson's Natasha Romanoff taking on the deadly mercenary known as Taskmaster. However, the true identity of the villain remains a mystery to audiences, and the latest character posters for Black Widow do little to shed light on the matter.
Over a decade after Johansson made her first appearance as the character in Iron Man 2, Black Widow will finally take the lead role in a standalone film that partly explores the origins of the former-KGB assassin before she joined the Avengers. Of course, the wait for the film has taken longer than expected on account of the COVID-19 pandemic, which resulted in the project being delayed multiple times before Disney settled on a simultaneous theatrical and Disney Plus premiere for Black Widow.
With the film now scheduled to debut in early July, the marketing campaign for Black Widow appears to be ramping up. On May 10, Marvel Studios debuted six new character posters for Johansson's Romanoff, Florence Pug's Yelena Belova, Rachel Weisz's Melina Vostokoff, David Harbour's Alexei Shostakov/Red Guardian, O-T Fagbenle's Rick Mason, and the Taskmaster. Of course, the Taskmaster is still cloaked in his armor and mask, leading many to suspect that the true identity of the character could be of significance. Curiously, Taskmaster's poster is the only one without a credited actor. At this time, little is known about Taskmaster's role in the film, aside from the fact that he acts as an adversary for Black Widow and that he has now taken over the Red Room, the very organization that first trained her to become a deadly assassin.
In the comics, Taskmaster is the alter-ego of a man once named Tony Masters, who possesses the ability to replicate observed actions. At a young age, Masters realized that his powers could be used to perfectly mimic the fight moves of his opponents, making him a formable adversary for superheroes like Captain America and Spider-Man. As such, Masters grew up to become a career criminal and was often hired as a training instructor for criminal organizations. While it is possible Black Widow will remain true to Taskmaster's comic book origins, fans suspect the identity of the character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is intended to shock audiences, considering how much effort Marvel Studios is putting into concealing the face behind the mask.
Because Black Widow sacrificed her life in Avengers: Endgame in order for the team to obtain the Soul Stone, just one of the six gems needed to reverse Thanos' decimation, her first standalone film will be set in between the events of Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War. Consequently, the film is expected to see Romanoff pass her mantle onto Yelena, although Pugh has played coy when it comes to her potential future as the next Black Widow.
While WandaVision and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Marvel Studios' first two Disney Plus shows, were released early in 2021, fans have not seen an MCU feature film since Spider-Man: Far From Home was released in 2019. As such, there may be higher-than-normal expectations for Black Widow now that it will kick off Phase 4 on the features side, but Romanoff is likey more than ready to deliver.
Black Widow is scheduled to be released in theaters and on Disney Plus on July 9, 2021.
Source: Black Widow/Twitter