Black Widow Star Scarlett Johansson Confirms We Will Finally Learn What Happened in Budapest

It’s one of the enduring questions of the Marvel Cinematic Universe: what exactly happened in Budapest? The mission, mentioned in The Avengers when Natasha was speaking with Clint Barton/Hawkeye as something that she compared to the Battle of New York, has been something that fans have long wondered about — especially with Clint’s assertion that Natasha and he “remember Budapest very differently”. Now, it seems that fans will finally find out exactly what happened in Budapest in the upcoming Black Widow film.

Black Widow star Scarlett Johansson confirmed in Marvel’s Black Widow: The Official Movie Special Book (via Screen Rant) that the film will finally reveal exactly what happened on that mission, ultimately making good on what was a “throwaway” line in The Avengers.

“We all agreed that we had to find out what happened in Budapest. That started out as this throwaway line which Joss Whedon threw into Marvel’s The Avengers as a funny moment between Hawkeye and Black Widow. That’s Clint and Natasha talking about their history, and you get a fun little Easter egg for fans to theorize about. We thought that if we don’t go back to Budapest and find out what really happened there, people will feel unsatisfied. I wondered what did happen there?” Johansson said.

She continued, “We often talked about what is going on in Natasha’s head. I really think that Natasha is haunted by the fact that she has this past that she feels so guilty about. Unfinished business is that sense of guilt that follows her around, which all stems from what happened in Budapest. Black Widow is not about what happened in Budapest, but it’s a huge jumping-off point for us to understand the heaviness of Natasha’s burden.”

As for the film’s other plot elements, Yelena Belova actress Florence Pugh revealed that the film’s storyline is “horrifying”, one that takes on the idea of women getting their lives back after enduring abuse and training to be what she called killing machines.

“The storyline that we are telling is very horrifying,” Pugh revealed in the book. “It’s about women that have been, essentially, abused and trained up to be killing machines.” She added, “As Scarlett said over and over, this is the right time for her to be telling [Black Widow’s] story. And we’re not shying away from the fact that this story is essentially about women getting their life back… And it’s a Marvel Studios film, too. That’s pretty rare, and it’s very exciting to be a part of that.”

Black Widow is currently set to hit theaters on May 7, 2021.

Are you excited to find out what happened in Budapest? Let us know in the comments!