Marvel Studios Chief Reveals Only Phase 4 Twist Caused By Pandemic

Black Widow is about the become the first Marvel Studios movie released in two years. The pandemic changed up release plans for Marvel Studios and every other studio in Hollywood. However, it didn’t change much regarding Kevin Feige‘s plans for how Phase 4 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe will roll out. Peaking to On the Red Carpet at the Black Widow premiere, Feige got to talking about Black Widow‘s Easter eggs. He talked a bit about how the film reveals the meaning behind the taunts Loki levied at Natasha Romanoff in The Avengers. Another moment was meant to be a character debut in Black Widow but now acts as a callback to The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.

“There’s also an Easter egg that originally was going to appear first in Black Widow and then show up in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and — because the pandemic — the only thing within our Phase 4 that was twisted a little bit,” Feige says. “So, for fans that watch Falcon and the Winter Soldier, there’s something waiting for them as an Easter egg in this one.”

Feige doesn’t reveal which Easter egg he’s talking about, but odds are he’s talking about Julia Louis-Dreyfuss playing Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine. Louis-Dreyfuss’s debut was the much-talked-about surprise cameo in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. However, reports suggest that she was supposed to debut in Black Widow if not for the film’s delays in getting into theaters. As a character who, in the comics, has strong ties to the world of espionage, Black Widow seems like an obvious place for the Contessa to appear. We also know that Louis-Dreyfuss has a future in the MCU.

“She’s so talented and you can do so much with her. And she’s game for it,” Marvel producer Nate Moore previously said of Louis-Dreyfus while speaking to Entertainment Weekly. “She certainly didn’t come to us and say, ‘I’ll be in one show once.’ She was like, ‘I want to be a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.’ And we said, ‘Great! Let’s get you in and let’s figure out how to use you.’ And the truth is, I think you will see her in the future. Definitely.”

Producer Zoie Nagelhout added, “That character of Val, we were like, we’ve got to bring somebody into John Walker’s world that challenges him, that maybe gives him a glimmer of hope but hope that is tainted because his character is all about a search for identity that is maybe a bit problematic. As soon as we figured out [Val’s] the right character for that role, [Louis-Dreyfus] came quickly after.”

What do you think? Let us know in the comments. Black Widow opens on July 9th.

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