Black Widow Might Feature An Even Younger Natasha

Marvel’s Black Widow movie will be set in the period of time between Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War, but a lot of its story is concerned with examining the past of Natasha Romanoff / Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson). Avengers and Avengers: Age of Ultron gave us some verbal and visual (respectively) looks at what Natasha’s Widow training in the Red Room was all about, but apparently, the Black Widow solo movie will open that door even further. As such, a new interview reveals that Black Widow will let Marvel fans meet an even younger version of Natasha, in order to examine those key moments in the past.

We got the confirmation of “Young Natasha” appearing in Black Widow via the hair and makeup team of Paul Gooch and David White. The pair were on the Oscars 2020 Red Carpet as nominees for their work on Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, and Variety took the opportunity to ask just what they had done for Marvel’s Black Widow that would distinguish it from the Avengers movies. As Gooch explains:

“Well we’re going back in time to when they’re much younger. And we have actors playing even younger than they [Scarlett Johansson and Florence Pugh] are, the same characters type of thing. And we’re in different countries… there’s all sorts of in it. You can see some of it in the trailer that’s out now.”

For those counting, what we essentially just got was confirmation that both Johansson’s Natasha Romanoff and Florence Pugh’s Yelena Belova will have be featured in scenes as the younger selves, with young actresses playing the roles. That’s definitely a solid confirmation, but it’s also not at all a surprise. Everything in the Black Widow trailers has teased at story about examining how the sordid past of Soviet espionage is affecting the modern day MCU, which pretty much guaranteed a flasback scene to Natasha and Yelena’s youth.

Upcoming Marvel Studios projects include Black Widow on May 1st, The Falcon and The Winter Soldier (rumored for August), The Eternals on November 6th, WandaVision sometime in Fall, 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. Marvel Studios Disney+ series without release dates include Ms. Marvel, Moon Knight, and She-Hulk.