New Black Widow Photo Shows Natasha Waiting to Take on Her Replacements

On Friday, Marvel Studios announced that Black Widow will open in theaters on November 6th. Marvel intended to release the first film of its Phase 4 slate in May to kick off the summer movie season. Instead, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, it will take the spot meant for The Eternals in the fall. Along with this announcement, Marvel released a new photo from Black Widow. The photo finds Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson) taking cover behind a wall. Two Black Widows, Romanoff's replacements from the Red Room, await on the other side with guns drawn. You can see the photo below.

"I feel like I'm in control of the destiny of this film, which gives me a lot more peace of mind," Johansson said in a previous interview. "I know her better than anybody. What was her childhood like? What is her relationship to figures of authority? This character is gritty and multi-dimensional but has a lot of trauma and has led an unexamined life. In order to operate at this elite level, she has probably had to push away a lot of stuff."

"It's a film about self-forgiveness and it's a film about family," Johansson said last November. "I think in life we sort of come of age many times and you have these kind of moments where you're in a transitional phase and then you move sort of beyond it and I think in the Black Widow standalone film I think the character is at, when we find her, a moment of real crisis, and throughout the film, by facing herself in a lot of ways and a lot of things that make her, her, she actually kind of comes through that crisis on the other side and we start to be able to reset where she's a more grounded, self-possessed person. So that's her journey, well, I hope anyway."

In Black Widow, Natasha Romanoff confronts the darker parts of her ledger when a dangerous conspiracy with ties to her past arises. Pursued by a force that will stop at nothing to bring her down, Natasha must deal with her history as a spy and the broken relationships left in her wake long before she became an Avenger. Directed by Cate Shortland and produced by Kevin Feige, the movie stars Scarlett Johansson reprising her role as Natasha Romanoff. Florence Pugh stars as Yelena Belova, David Harbour as Alexei Shostakov aka Red Guardian, and Rachel Weisz as Melina Vostokoff.

Marvel Studios' upcoming releases include Black Widow opening on November 6th; The Eternals on February 12, 2021; Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings on May 5, 2021; Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness on November 5, 2021; Thor: Love and Thunder on February 18, 2022; Black Panther 2 on May 6, 2022; and Captain Marvel 2 on July 8, 2022. Upcoming Disney+ additions to the Marvel Cinematic Universe include The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, WandaVision, Loki, What If...?, Hawkeye, Ms. Marvel, She-Hulk, and Moon Knight.