William Hurt Reportedly Spotted on Marvel’s Black Widow Set

Marvel Studios is hard at work on its Phase 4 slate of movies, and the first one to hit theaters will be Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow solo film. The big twist in Black Widow‘s story premise is that the film is set in time between Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War. That setting allows for a lot of potentially fun Marvel Cinematic Universe cameos – and now we may have a first look at one of them! That’s because William Hurt (better known as the MCU’s General “Thunderbolt” Ross) may have just been spotted on the set of Black Widow!

It gets even deeper than that: based on the context of how Hurt may be appearing in Black Widow, it could be opening the door to a much bigger Marvel surprise!

As podcaster Charles Murphy reports: “William Hurt, aka Thunderbolt Ross, is currently on the set of what I believe to be additional photography for ‘BLACK WIDOW.’ ScarJo is not believed to be there. Could Ross be visiting with Yelena in a post credit scene setting up a ‘THUNDERBOLTS’ project? That I cannot confirm.”

Taking things a step at a time: last we saw, Ross appeared in both Avengers: Infinity War as a (brief) antagonist for Captain America and Black Widow’s Secret Avengers squad; however, by the time of Iron Man’s sacrifice in Avengers: Endgame, Ross was seen at Tony Stark’s funeral paying his respects, with whatever beef there was between him and the Avengers seemingly settled. Given the timeline of Black Widow, General Ross could indeed be after Natasha Romanoff after her Civil War defection – or recruiting a replacement for her, as setup for a Thunderbolts movie, a project that Marvel fans have been longing for.

WandaVision is set to hit Disney+ Spring 2021. Other upcoming Marvel Studios projects includeBlack Widow on May 1, 2020, 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, Loki in Spring 2021, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness on May 7, 2021, What If…? in Summer 2021, Hawkeye in Fall 2021, and Thor: Love and Thunder on November 5, 2021, and Black Panther 2 on May 6, 2022. Marvel Studios Disney+ series without release dates include Ms. Marvel, Moon Knight, and She-Hulk.