New Black Widow Featurette Teases The Future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe

Marvel has released a new Black Widow featurette, which also teases the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige appears in the new Black Widow video, and promises Marvel fans that "You will look at the past again in a new light, and we are sowing the seeds of new characters into the future of the MCU." Indeed, Black Widow may be a story set before the untimely death of Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson), but the fates of the other major characters in the movie are far more uncertain. So what could it mean for the future of the franchise?

Kevin Feige is always something of a spymaster when it comes to the secrets of the MCU, so whatever he has planned for the characters and events of Black Widow, you know it's significant. According to Feige, fans shouldn't get to comfortable with their theories:

"You know a lot about the characters already," Feige explains in the video. "So there are presumptions that you bring to it. And we like to subvert those."

Black Widow will see Natasha Romanoff caught up in her past, during the pivotal years she was on the run between Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War. Natasha will be pulled back to Russia and the family unit she used to work with as a Russian espionage agent. That "family" includes Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), Nat's "sister" from the new era of Black Widow agents; Red Guardian (David Harbour) the Soviet Union's answer to Captain America; and Melina Vostokoff (Rachel Weisz), Nat's surrogate mother who comes from an older generation of Black Widows.

Depending on who survives the deadly fight against Taskmaster and The Red Room during Black Widow, Natasha Romanoff has an entire circle of those who could take on her mantle and/or legacy, once she is gone. Since we know Black Widow has a post-credits scene, it's not hard to imagine the film kicking off some new storyline in the post-Endgame world of the MCU.

In fact, it's not much of a spoiler to say we already know that one Black Widow character does have a bigger story taking shape: Florence Pugh's Yelena is already confirmed to be making an appearance in the Hawkeye series on Disney+, which is expected to arrive later this year. Given that Hawkeye will see Clint Barton (Jeremy Renner) and his new protege Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld) taking on a bunch of assassins, Yelena will either end up being a crucial ally - or formidable foe.

Black Widow hits theaters and Disney+ on July 9th.