'Black Widow': Will the film finally explain Natasha Romanoff's mysterious family origins?
'Avengers Endgame' left us heartbroken as we saw Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr) die, as well as Black Widow aka Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson).
While Tony got a satisfying ending and had a proper burial, Natasha did not receive the same. Her final mission was to return to the past with Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), go to Vormir and acquire the soul stone.
However, there is one uneasy condition associated with the soul stone. You need to sacrifice someone you love, in order to attain it. And so, much to the shock of fans, Natasha sacrifices herself.
While most of the OG Avengers are seemingly done and dusted with the MCU, Natasha has her own film standalone film finally, which will provide the much-needed closure we all need and answer the burning questions about her past.
Black Widow's past life has always been a question of mystery, in the films at least. In the trailer, apart from the frightening stunts that she seems to pull, we see her coming in contact with a second modern Black Widow Yelena Belova, who she calls "sis".
The two are not biologically related in the comics and most likely are not related in the films either. Yet, they were both trained in the same Red Room facility.
In the comics, Black Widow made her debut as the Russian spy antagonist in the feature 'Iron Man', which began in 'Tales Of Suspense' (1964). A couple of issues later, she recruits Hawkeye to her cause.
The government supplies her with the first Black Widow costume and high-tech weaponry. However, she leaves for the US and later becomes a recurring ally of the Avengers team.
Later, after much retconning, Natasha was said to be raised from childhood by the USSR's Black Widow program, rather than just Ivan Petrovich, which was the initial storyline.
In 'Avengers Endgame', Red Skull calls her the daughter of Ivan, something which she had never known. She was then trained in combat and espionage in the covert 'Red Room' facility.
The Red Room is a Soviet training facility that was created to produce deadly female spies. The girls are implanted with false memories of being trained in ballerina at the Bishnoi Theatre. They are forcefully sterilized to prevent pregnancies in the field and "eliminate weakness".
At the end of the 'Black Widow' trailer, Red Guard (David Harbour) makes the telling statement, "family, back together again". So, will this film explore the origins of Black Widow's actual family finally?
Or is it the family that she chose, before the Avengers? 'Black Widow' hits the screens on May 5, 2020.
