More than a month ago, reports indicated Marvel’s Black Widow was likely already in production, and now some leaked set photos are allegedly revealing some pretty interesting facts about the upcoming female-led flick, including some brand new character news.
Recent reports indicated Black Widow is filming in Budapest (“It’s like Budapest all over again.”) and that Black Widow actress Scarlett Johansson and new Marvel actress Florence Pugh have been spotted on set. However, over the weekend, new set photos have seemingly emerged giving us a look at some set dummies for Pugh and Johansson.
Yes, normally dummy crates would not be all that exciting, even given that fans are all over every single tiny new hot fact about upcoming Marvel flicks. However, if you look closely at the images shared by Twitter account Best of Widows, you may notice the two crates containing the dummies actually have labels.
Those labels seemingly list the character names “Natasha,” as in Natasha Romanoff and “Yelena,” a name that could refer to Yelena Belova.
In Marvel comics, the character is a Russian spy who is first foes with Natasha Romanoff, although later they get on the same page. Originally introduced in 1999, Yelena Belova also has ties to Hydra, S.H.I.E.L.D. and Vanguard and has also held the title of Black Widow. Her inclusion in the prequel (if it is a prequel) would makes all the sense in the world if the crate label proves true.
It's been assumed that Black Widow will be a prequel movie, although Keven Feige is still going about his business and acting like those questions haven't been answered yet, despite there seemingly being set news. The Marvel head did recently explain there are reasons for doing prequels, seemingly in relation to a Black Widow question. Feige said:
There are ways to do prequels that are less informative or answer questions you didn’t necessarily have, and then there are ways to do prequels where you learn all sorts of things you never knew before.
It already basically makes sense to do a prequel, given the direction that Marvel took Natasha Romanoff and Clint Barton’s characters in the recent release Avengers: Endgame.
What this means for Natasha and Yelena’s relationship in the past and the potential for Yelena to make an impact in Marvel’s future is unknown. After all, Marvel isn’t saying much about the Black Widow "prequel" movie at all yet.
Related: All The Reasons Why Black Widow Absolutely Deserves Her Own Movie
We’ll likely hear more about it when Disney and Marvel make a splash – again, allegedly – at Comic-Con this year.
Here’s hoping for more official Phase Four news soon. In the meantime, stay tuned to CinemaBlend for plenty of additional superhero news and keep an eye on our movies schedule to see what’s coming up. (Spoiler: In comics world, it's Spider-man: Far From Home.)
