Marvel always does this. They show us alternate versions of certain scenes in the trailers to either raise our hype or more often than not, avoid spoilers. Avengers: Endgame trailers had so many of these edited scenes that were totally different or missing from the final cut of the movie. If you remember seeing all the trailers, there were training montages of Black Widow that never ended up in the final cut.
While speaking to the Los Angeles Times, the writers did address this. Here’s how the whole conversation went:
“Christopher Markus – It feels silly to say things and they may not be on the DVD, but there was more footage — literally, you’ve missed no dialogue — but there was more footage of Natasha living alone, very much like a hermit, in Avengers compound before Scott Lang showed up.
That I found very interesting because she was training, sort of purposelessly training. She was gonna stay a hero no matter what, and it’s admiral, but it’s also a little bit sad, because the fight’s over. In the end, there was nothing that was getting across that we didn’t get from that scene where she’s talking to the holograms and she cries. But I like the sort of time it took with her.
Stephen McFeely – [We] wrote many novels’ worth of things.”
Markus – In a TV show we’d get those things. But at three hours, you’re already asking a lot.”
McFeely – It’s a lean three hours, anyway. I defy you to look at the scenes and go, ‘Well, what are you gonna throw out?’ Where are you gonna go to the bathroom? It’s a tough call.”
Black Widow was an extremely important character too in the story. After the rat helping Scott Lang escape from the Quantum Realm, the biggest credit goes to Widow for sacrificing herself. Her death actually completed her story arc as getting the Soul Stone meant that her family will be back as well. As far as the question of her funeral was concerned, she obviously didn’t get one similar to Tony Stark.
The writers explained the reason behind that choice. They said:
“Her journey, in our minds, had come to an end if she could get the Avengers back. She comes from such an abusive, terrible, mind-control background, so when she gets to Vormir and she has a chance to get the family back, that’s a thing she would trade for. Tony gets a funeral. Natasha doesn’t. That’s partly because Tony’s this massive public figure and she’s been a cipher the whole time. It wasn’t necessarily honest to the character to give her a funeral.”
There was another reason why the death of Black Widow wasn’t deeply discussed. First of all, there obviously wasn’t enough time in Endgame to do so. Secondly, Joe Russo told Entertainment Tonight at San Diego Comic-Con that this decision was made because Black Widow’s closure would have happened in her movie. He said:
“Well, Natasha has another movie coming out. Tony does not have another movie coming out. When you’re dealing with storytelling real estate in a three-hour movie, there’s only so much of it, and someone else has another film coming, there’s always the opportunity to bring closure in that other movie. In this movie, we had to bring closure to Tony Stark.”
Hopefully, the Black Widow movie will give Black Widow enough solo time. There are new characters coming into that film. So, hopefully, the creatives will divide time in an appropriate way, and give Black Widow ample time to tell her story.
Here’s the upcoming slate of Phase 4 – Black Widow on May 1, 2020, The Falcon and The Winter Soldier in Fall 2020, The Eternals on November 6, 2020, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings on February 12, 2021, WandaVision in Spring 2021, Loki in Spring 2021, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness on May 7, 2021, What If? In Summer 2021, Hawkeye in Fall 2021, and Thor: Love and Thunder on November 5, 2021.
