Key Details In Black Widow’s Budapest Mission Could Unlock Phase 4 Plot
After the pandemic caused kick-off of the MCU’s Phase 4 to be delayed by almost a year, fans have had to spend the last 8 months getting tit-bits of developing phase 4 plots and movie reshuffles. Natasha Romanoff’s solo movie was supposed to kick off Marvel’s Phase 4 in the original movie schedule, but now the reshuffled slate says WandaVision will launch Phase 4 and will be followed by FTWS and then Black Widow. Marvel Studios has assured fans that the reshuffling will not affect the timeline and continuity that they’ve managed to preserve for so long.
Part of the purpose of the Black Widow movie is to fill in the gaps and link certain plots in the MCU timeline. But more importantly, the movie will give fans a chance to delve into the life of the Red-room trained Avenger. The movie features Florence Pugh as Yelena Belova, Romanoff’s sister and fellow Red Room trained assassin. Rachel Weisz plays Elena Vostokoff while David Harbour was cast as Alexei Shostakov, also known as Red Guardian, who was the Soviet Union’s attempt at creating a super soldier.
Watch: Marvel Studios’ Black Widow | Final Trailer
When is Black Widow Movie Set in MCU Timeline?
The timeline for the Black Widow movie is set to be sometime between Captain America: Civil War in 2016 and 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War.The movie is going to explain a lot of what Natasha had been up to after she turned down the Sokovia Accords along with Cap and the others. Since the release of Tony Stark’s IronMan in 2008, Natasha Romanoff has been a very important yet invincible wheel in the development of The Avengers. From the time she was undercover in Tony Stark’s security detail, to when Nick Fury tasked her with recruiting and somewhat taming Bruce Banner, Natasha’s importance to the team is often underestimated.
After Thanos wiped out half of the world, Black Widow inherited authority in the absence of Nick Fury and Tony Stark. But there has never really been much information on how she became a Black Widow or what extraordinary skills qualify her to be on the Avengers team. Her death in Avengers: Endgame meant that any exposé on her past life was going to be retrospective.
A look at Black Widow’s past could provide a lot of significant clues from a lot of missions she carried while she was still a Red Room assassin. The Red Room assassins were a group of highly trained women programmed to take out their targets without mercy or hesitation. Dealing with her past would ultimately reveal a couple of top secret missions she might have carried out.
We know that there are a couple of locations that hold significant importance in Black Widow’s life. Loki once mentioned Sao Paulo during a discussion with Natasha, and she once told Cap a story of an operation she oversaw in Iran. But what we don’t know is what exactly happened in these locations and that is what Black Widow will attempt to connect.
What Really Happened In Budapest?
During the Battle Of New York, Natasha made mention of Budapest during a mid-battle discussion with Clint Barton (Hawkeye). They would reference Budapest again during a scene in Avengers: Endgame. However, in one of the discussions, Clint reminds her that they both remember Budapest very differently which could be hinting at her time as a Red Room assassin. Also, whatever time she spent in Budapest has to be before Captain America: Civil War. So if the Black Widow movie is going to explain Budapest and her time as a Red Room assassin, we might be getting a lot of flashbacks in the movie.
Watch: Just Like Budapest All Over Again!” Black Widow & Hawkeye – The Avengers (2012)
Marvel has reiterated that the Black Widow movie is very pivotal to the development of Phase of it’s Cinematic Universe. But with Natasha already dead in the present timeline, why would an auto biography action sequence matter so much? Could it be that some of the missions she carried out will be responsible for certain things that might take place in Phase 4? We’ve already seen how a mind-controlled Bucky Barnes was used to kill Tony Stark’s parents; perhaps a mind-controlled Black Widow has done much worse.
In the Black Widow movie, Natasha is going to try and correct the wrong she did in her past. But like Loki asked her in a scene in 2012’s Avengers “Can you really wipe out that much red?”. These missions of Black Widow could have ripple effects in the events of Phase 4 especially what happens in Budapest. A theory suggests that ‘it can be assumed that losing a sister or killing her in Sao Paulo hospital fire is one of them (Read: General Drakov’s daughter) might be the cause of Natasha’s initial run from KGB.’
Black Widow is scheduled to be released in the United States on May 7, 2021. It is set to be released in IMAX and will be the first film released in Phase Four of the MCU. Cameos are expected from Tony Stark, Clint Barton, Nick Fury and a couple of others.
