This moment in 'Avengers: Age of Ultron' sealed Black Widow's fate in 'Endgame'
Contains Spoilers
The ending of 'Avengers: Endgame' was unpredictable. While it was expected that one or more of the major characters would make the ultimate sacrifice while battling Thanos, not many would have seen Black Widow aka Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson) to be one of the Avengers who would pay the price so that the rest could save the world.
But Marvel Studios did hint that her character could perish in the final installment and we have a theory that will back up the logic, and for that we'll have to take a trip back in time.
'Avengers: Age of Ultron,' introduced us to two new characters: "The enhanced twins"- Pietro and Wanda Maximoff, played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Elizabeth Olsen, and who would be instrumental to the Avengers fold.
While Pietro dies in the movie, Wanda goes on to join the Avengers. But before the twins were granted powers, thanks to Baron Wolfgang Von Strucker, who uses Loki's scepter that houses one of the infinity stones to experiment on the two, they were brainwashed and were a part of Hydra.
Wanda successfully gets into the existing Avengers' heads giving them visions of the future. Well, everyone except Natasha, who is shown her past. In the visions, Thor (Chris Hemsworth) sees Asgard being destroyed and Heimdall (Idris Elba) blames him for not being there to save them. Captain America aka Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) gets to see that he will eventually dance with the woman he loved i.e. Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell). Hulk aka Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) goes on a rampage and Tony Stark, well he sees every one of the Avengers die in front of him and in the end, he sacrifices himself so that the rest could have their "happily-forever" moments.
Coming back to Black Widow's death in 'Endgame,' she and Hawkeye aka Clint Barton (Jeremy Renner) go to Vormir to collect the soul stone and when Red Skull (Cap's nemesis in 'Captain America: The First Avenger') tells the duo that one of them must sacrifice themselves in order to possess the stone. While Hawkeye and Widow do have a bit of a tussle, it is eventually the latter who sacrifices herself in the end, so that Clint could be with his family again once they get their hands on all the stones and reverse the snap.
While telling them that a sacrifice is necessary, Red Skull mentions the names of the duo's parents. One that Natasha never knew. Her only memory of her childhood was when she was trained as a spy in Russia and that memory was the one she saw when Wanda too influences her mind in 'Age of Ultron,' thereby implying that her journey to Vormir was the end of the road.
Natasha could not see her future, while the rest could and realizes that this was the endgame for her. Also added to the fact that she was the only character who never had a family. While it can be said that the ones closest to her, whom she could call family, were the Avengers, she still could not see a role where she would be one of the heroes standing in the end.
While she may have died in 'Endgame,' fans will see a little more of the Black Widow as she gets her own miniseries on Disney Plus, the streaming service that will go live on November 12, 2019. In all probability, the series will deal with her origin as the main plot point.
'Avengers: Endgame' released on April 26, 2019, and is successfully running in theaters.