Marvel Studios' Black Widow will be available to watch for all Disney Plus subscribers starting October 6, the studio has revealed. While the film had a simultaneous release in theaters and on Disney Plus on July 9, it was only available on the streaming service as a Premier Access title so far, and in order to watch it, subscribers had to pay an additional charge.
Marvel made the announcement on its social media channels and even shared a 30-second Black Widow trailer that offers glimpses at the various heartwarming scenes between Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow and her adoptive family. The main focus is on the banter between Romanoff and Florence Pugh's Yelena Belova, who became a fan-favorite character as soon as the film premiered.
The film has had an interesting journey thus far. Black Widow was initially meant to release in May 2020, but the premiere date was postponed due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. It was one of the several big-budget films to have been delayed, and it was later decided that upon its July 2021 release, it would be made available for streaming on Disney Plus, too.
The simultaneous release, however, led to several other issues for the streaming service. Initially, the film had a large opening at the box office, but during its second week, it faced a huge drop-off and theaters blamed the dip on Disney Plus. This also led to a harrowing lawsuit filed by Johansson’s representatives, with the Black Widow star claiming that Disney had breached a contract that allowed her to benefit from the box office profits of the film.
Just last week, a settlement was reached between Johansson’s representatives and Disney. While no details of the settlement have been revealed so far, it seems like the Black Widow star is satisfied with the conclusion considering she has left the doors open for future projects.
Black Widow was the first time that Romanoff’s backstory was explored in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. She has been a part of the MCU since 2010’s Iron Man 2 and has made several appearances in other Marvel Studios projects, too. But, despite being an important part of the Avengers, she hadn’t been given a standalone project until now. Her story will now live on Disney Plus starting Wednesday.
Black Widow will be available to stream on Disney Plus on October 6, 2021.
Source: Marvel Studios/Twitter