David Harbour Officially Wraps Filming on Black Widow

Marvel Studio’s panel at Hall H during Comic-Con this year shook the convention center to its core. One of the big surprises to come out of the panel was the announcement that David Harbour would be playing a role in Black Widow, and now the actor has wrapped filming on the project. Disney would send out a press release shortly after the hysteria to explain who the actor would be playing in the film.

The company’s statement said that Harbour was playing Alexi Shostakov in the upcoming Black Widow. The character is probably more widely known as the Red Guardian among comic fans. The big Russian is a longtime KGB fixture, and it makes sense to see him in a story alongside Natasha Romanoff’s spy action heroics. Harbour just sounded relieved to be done so that he could get his facial hair back on track in an Instagram post.

Harbour spoke to Comicbook.com earlier this year about the prospect of playing a role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. He was nothing short of respectful in those comments about the studio and their previous works. With his future on Stranger Things up in the air, there was a window for Harbour to make a jump back into the hero racket in Black Widow.

Harbour began, “Oh, geez, I don’t know. It feels tiring, just thinking about it. I guess one of the things I really like about being an action star is that I’m not in the best shape, and I don’t look quite as capable as most of those other guys, and I think that’s a real asset in terms of the genre stuff. Because I think it’s a hard balance because we want to be wowed by these things, but I also miss that identification with a main heroic character that’s very incapable.

The Stranger Things star also shared his feelings about how big the MCU has gotten in popular culture. Keep in mind that the Netflix series that he stars in is one of the most popular offerings on that entire platform. Even still, Marvel Studios’ output puts things in a whole new perspective because of the sheer scope of these movies now.

“Yeah. Yeah. Those movies, there’s a reason why they are the zeitgeist that they are,” Harbour began. “The guys that I’ve met over there who are making these movies, like [Louis] D’Esposito and [Kevin] Feige, they just seem like the best in the business in a certain way in terms of that particular thing. And the great thing about them and about all the people that work on these movies is that it really feels like an amateur movie, and I don’t mean this in terms of a negative thing. Amateur stems from the word “amo,” to love. People just doing it for the love of it as opposed to just doing it for a paycheck. And that’s really what it feels like. It feels like these guys just love, love, love movies, and they want to make fun, exciting movies.”

A lot will be uncovered during Black Widow and the future of the MCU will be shaped by the film. Who knows, audiences could see Harbour again on Disney+ if the demand is there. That is great for his career but the actor probably just wants a break at this point.