Taskmaster, Yelena, and More in the Black Widow Movie? Sign Me Up!

An enemy and an ally to Deadpool, it seems that Taskmaster has a new friend/foe coming. Her name? Natasha Romanoff. That’s right, it seems as if Taskmaster is going to be the big bad facing off against Nat in her standalone film. That is, he’s also going to be taking on two different spies if he so dares to venture into the Black Widow movie.

From sneaky set pictures, we can see that there are quite a few new elements to the Black Widow movie that have us excited for what’s to come for Natasha Romanoff.

So, what does all of this mean? To be quite honest, I have no idea. Like many Marvel properties, Black Widow has been kept mainly under wraps with the exception of casting news. Knowing that Florence Pugh, Rachel Weiss, and David Harbour were added to the cast was seemingly enough information for Marvel, and we were granted nothing further.

Now, though, I’m going to assume that Harbour may be taking on Taskmaster? It’s hard to tell since there is a completely masked figure represented there but we do, at least, have a hint as to who Pugh will be playing. Yelena Belova, a Russian spy like Natasha herself, could be coming to life in the movie.

As you can see with the set picture of Pugh and Johansson, there are two dummy boxes for their stunt doubles, and written on them are “Natasha” and “Yelena,” meaning that Florence Pugh has to be playing Yelena Belova, the second character to take on the title of Black Widow in the Marvel comics world.

So, while Natasha Romanoff may have sacrificed herself to the Soul Stone in Avengers: Endgame, that doesn’t mean we have to completely wipe out the Black Widow title from the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

From Yelena Belova, there is the news of Taskmaster and what his involvement with the film could mean. A character that is sometimes a supervillain, sometimes an anti-hero, Taskmaster is a complicated figure in the Marvel world—much like Natasha Romanoff and her assassin past, when you think about it.

What’s interesting is that he’s been featured against Natasha a select few times, but he’s more of an ally of Deadpool. So is his involvement in this movie their way of bringing Wade Wilson into the MCU, now that Disney and Marvel have gotten those rights back from Fox? It’s a little bit of a shock that he’s the chosen foe for Nat, but we’ll have to wait and see where he’s playing a part in her story.

This movie may be five years later than it should have been (meaning that it shouldn’t have taken them nearly 13 years to give us a movie about Black Widow when she’s been in the MCU since Iron Man 2), but I’m honestly getting more and more excited with each new set picture and bit of news about it.

(image: Marvel Entertainment)

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Rachel Leishman

Rachel Leishman (She/Her) is an Assistant Editor at the Mary Sue. She's been a writer professionally since 2016 but was always obsessed with movies and television and writing about them growing up. A lover of Spider-Man and Wanda Maximoff's biggest defender, she has interests in all things nerdy and a cat named Benjamin Wyatt the cat. If you want to talk classic rock music or all things Harrison Ford, she's your girl but her interests span far and wide. Yes, she knows she looks like Florence Pugh. She has multiple podcasts, normally has opinions on any bit of pop culture, and can tell you can actors entire filmography off the top of her head. Her current obsession is Glen Powell's dog, Brisket. Her work at the Mary Sue often includes Star Wars, Marvel, DC, movie reviews, and interviews.

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