‘Black Widow’: An Analysis of the Teaser Trailer
WARNING: SPOILERS ON AVENGERS ENDGAME
With Natasha’s death in ‘Avengers: Endgame’, it was assumed that her movie was going to be a prequel, but the teaser trailer suggests that when the movie is set might be more complicated. The ‘Black Widow’ film is supposed to be set after ‘Civil War’, and the majority of it is likely to be, however the trailer suggests there is still an alternate ending for Natasha than the one in ‘Endgame’. Even if Natasha remains dead, there is still quite a bright future for the Black Widow mantel.
The ‘Black Widow’ title sequence is one of the biggest indicators that there will be a plot line with time - travel. The silhouette of Natasha walking through her own mantel - the hour glass - could be symbolic of her walking through time, as well as metaphorically 'walking through her past'. The two glowing, red lines that run through the title come from the hour glass. If the hour glass is symbolic of time, they start to look like two separate timelines: one where Natasha dies, like in ‘Endgame’, and possibly one where both she and Tony both live in ‘Black Widow’. The version of Natasha walking through the hour glass was from ‘Iron Man 2’, and since its been confirmed Tony is in the film, a past Tony might be able to come back to the future with Natasha.
With both ‘timelines’ glowing red, there is a link back to one of the final trailers in ‘Avengers: Endgame’, which had sections of the image highlighted red while the rest of the shot remained in black and white. Natasha’s trailer started with flashbacks as well, but since they were of her family at SHIELD and her life as an Avenger, there is an equal chance this was just be a reminder for the audience of when the film is set. Despite this, Natasha’s voice over: ‘I used to have nothing. And then I got this job. This family. But nothing lasts for forever’ is very similar to her line in ‘Endgame’: ‘I used to have nothing. Then I got this. This job…this family. And I was…I was better because of it. And even though…they’re gone…I’m still trying to be better.’. The Endgame trailer had flashbacks to the dusted heroes and the remaining Avengers’ loved ones, and now that Natasha is dead, her own flashbacks and the red timelines could be a link to ‘Endgame’. The two films using exactly the same techniques suggest that that their films will have similar themes, like time travel. Or more specifically, time-heists.
Alternatively, even if the timeline remains the same, the is still a likely chance that the Black Widow mantel will survive a post-Endgame world. It had been said even before the trailer came out with characters like Yelena that this film will contain multiple Black Widows. One of them could easily take the mantel in her name, or even individualize the mantle e.g. Crimson Widow, Red Widow etc. In Yelena and Natasha’s close up fight - sequence, they switched guns, like they were switching roles. As shown with Sam as Captain America and Jane as the Mighty Thor, mantles don’t have to carried by the original character.
In either version of events, there is much to be revealed about Natasha’s past; the fact that she is a super soldier being one of them. The sequence where she jumps out of a plane is not dissimilar from the way Steve jumped out the SHIELD aircraft in ‘Winter Soldier’. There is very little chance Natasha could have survived jumping out a plane from such a great hight without the same or similar skills. It would also mean that Natasha survived the fall in ‘Endgame’. Clint might have only needed to believe he sacrificed his loved one, and gone through the loss of doing so to gain the Soul Stone.
The Black Widow lives, through people remembering who she was in her past, or who she is going to become in the future. It seems quite fitting as master spy, that her first film is heist movie.
