Who Dies in Black Widow?

Early reactions for the newly released Black Widow, the latest film from Marvel Studios, suggest that it’s one of the darker entries of the Marvel Cinematic Universe to-date. It deals with tough subject matter and doesn’t hold back on the action, which will likely have folks wondering if some of the characters actually make it out alive. After all, we already know the titular character, played by Scarlett Johansson, dies a few years after the film takes place. Does Black Widow spell doom for anyone else?

WARNING: This article contains major spoilers for Marvel’s Black Widow. Continue reading at your own risk…

There were a lot of theories heading into Black Widow that the film would bring the death of Florence Pugh’s Yelena Belova. She seemed set up to take over the mantle from Natasha in the MCU, but the fact that Natasha wore Yelena’s vest after the events of Black Widow had fans questioning whether or not the younger character would survive.

Fortunately, Yelena survives Black Widow and will continue to appear in future Marvel projects, including the Hawkeye TV series later this year. In fact, all of the main protagonists in Black Widow survive, which may surprise some. Melina and Red Guardian leave with Yelena at the end of the film, allowing Natasha to go reunite with the Avengers.

The only major death in Black Widow belongs to the film’s main villain, Dreykov. The man that has run the Red Room for years, kidnapping young girls, and mind-controlling Widows all over the world, is finally brought down by Yelena late in the movie. As Dreykov tries to escape his fortress in the sky, Yelena causes one of his ship’s engines to explode. Even if he survived the explosion he would never have survived the fall that came after.

Several Widow agents die throughout the movie, all pawns being mind-controlled by Dreykov. When it comes to main characters, however, Dreykov is the only one who doesn’t survive. Unless you count Natasha, since the post-credits scene shows Yelena visiting her grave. But that happened off-screen (and two years ago in the real world) so it’s not really a “death” for this movie.

Marvel’s Black Widow is now playing in theaters and on Disney+ with Premier Access purchase.