David Harbour is joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe in Black Widow. He plays Alexei Shostakov, the Russian super-soldier also known as Red Guardian. Alexei has a history with Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson). Playing a Russian character, it makes sense that Harbour might be working on his Russian accent. He put the Russian-Ukrainian-ish accent out there during a visit to The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. He… may still have some work to do. You can take a listen in the video above. Harbour previously discusses his complicated Marvel character, who was meant to be the USSR’s Soviet counterpart to the mighty Captain America.
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“In the Cold War, the Americans developed nuclear weapons, the Russians developed nuclear weapons. And then the Americans developed Captain America and in response, in retaliation, the Soviets developed the Red Guardian. So in that way, he’s a foil,” Harbour explained. “He has very complicated feelings about this particular thing. But the Soviet Union fell and a lot of things went down with him in particular, and now he’s in a different place in his life.
“It’s a very interesting character, you get to see all of this. I don’t want to give too much away, but I’ll say that he seemed to me… a certain way, and then I was so surprised that these other things that come out in this character, which is always how it works in these movies. His flaws and who he is is so unique and wonderful, the writing is extraordinary.”
Black Widow is directed by Cate Shortland. The film stars Johansson returning as Natasha Romanoff aka Black Widow, David Harbour as Alexei aka The Red Guardian, Florence Pugh as Yelena, O-T Fagbenle as Mason, and Rachel Weisz as Melina.
The film takes place after the events of Captain America: Civil War. That may seem to some like an odd choice for the first film in Phase 4 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige has asked fans to trust him on this.
Are you excited about Black Widow? Let us know in the comments. Black Widow opens in theaters on May 1, 2020.
Upcoming Marvel Studios projects include The Falcon and The Winter Soldier in fall 2020, The Eternals on November 6, 2020, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings on February 12, 2021, WandaVision in spring 2021, Loki in spring 2021, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness on May 7, 2021, Spider-Man 3 on July 16, 2021, What If? In summer 2021, Hawkeye in fall 2021, Thor: Love and Thunder on November 5, 2021, and Black Panther 2 on May 6, 2022. Ms. Marvel, Moon Knight, and She-Hulk are also in the works for Disney+.
Image via Daniel Zuchnik/Getty Images
