One of the most anticipated movies of 2020 is going to be none other than Marvel’s first (and probably last) Black Widow solo film. Marvel took a lot of time to make this as Black Widow has been in the MCU for a decade, and it’s only in Phase 4 that she is getting her solo movie. The sad part about it is that it’s actually going to be the final Black Widow movie as well. It is more or less confirmed that this is going to be an MCU prequel, an origin story for Natasha Romanoff. But why has it been placed in Phase 4 after 23 movies?
Marvel always has long term plans. They’ve been running a shared Universe for a decade now, and things have been just perfect. Every movie is interconnected with multiple other films, and Black Widow being the prequel has the opportunity to connect it with many other MCU movies. So yes, there’s totally a plan behind releasing this movie after so many of those, and that plan involves the villain of the film.
Earlier, reports suggested that Taskmaster is going to be the villain against Black Widow, and Andre Holland was being eyed to play the role. Now, it has been confirmed that it is indeed Taskmaster who Black Widow will be taking on. The new Set Photos that have leaked on the internet give us our very first look at Taskmaster. Here, check it out:
Before talking about Taskmaster, let’s take note of the fact that the shooting is continuing in Budapest, Hungary. We’ve known for 7 years that Black Widow and Hawkeye have had a past in Budapest, and Avengers: Endgame recently brought it up for a very simple reason. That reason was the Black Widow movie finally telling us what happened in Budapest. This obviously means that Hawkeye is going to show up in the Black Widow movie.
Taskmaster is someone who has been donned by many characters in the comics. He has been a hero and a villain. Most importantly, he has fought many big name heroes like Deadpool & the Avengers and is associated with some big name villains like Norman Osborn, Crossbones and many others. So, with Marvel bringing him into the picture, he can be used for so many stories in the future. We know that Norman Osborn is going to be a future MCU villain as established by Spider-Man: Far From Home, so Taskmaster could also join his cause.
A Thunderbolts movie is being rumored and Taskmaster could be a perfect character to join the team of the villains. The same goes for Yelena Belova, as Florence Pugh is rumored to play the character. Belova also returns as a supervillain later on, who joins the Thunderbolts. So, anything is possible.
Now returning to Taskmaster, some may argue that his abilities are insane and may actually be too much for Black Widow, but he actually is a perfect villain to go up against Nat. For those of you who don’t know, Taskmaster was Tony Masters in Marvel’s Ultimate Comics Universe (1610), an ex-mercenary who has the ability to mimic any powers he comes in contact with.
In the more recent days, Taskmaster has evolved into someone that has power absorption abilities, but in his early days, he didn’t have all that and instead, he had “photographic reflexes” which he gained while working for SHIELD, allowing him to mimic any person’s physical movements (no matter how complex) simply by observing them. Widow will have to punch double her weight to take down a formidable bad guy like him. And she’s going to have help (Hawkeye) since the fighting seems to be taking place in Budapest.
