In another, better timeline, Black Widow — the long-threatened solo outing for Scarlett Johansson’s Avengers trouper Natasha Romanoff — would have kicked off last year’s summer movie season. Instead it’s being dropped into the middle of this one’s. Not only that, it’s bowing in theaters and on Disney+, as one of their pricey PVOD options. But lest you forget it’s still en route, a new trailer has arrived, stressing the existential dilemma of its resurrected hero.
The new ad doesn’t skirt around one detail: In the MCU timeline, Black Widow is dead. She sacrificed herself in Avengers: Endgame so that the rest of humanity may live. She didn’t get a royal send-off like Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark, but she did get her own, belated movie, which will presumably fill in some chapters in her life.
The latest trailer has her intoning on the narration track about her curious relationship with her identity — someone who’s been a part of two families, one by choice, one by chance. We see her with her fellow colleagues, some of whom have also passed on. And we see her with her biological relatives, including sis Florence Pugh and parents Rachel Weisz and David Harbour. There’s also some glimpses of Ray Winstone, the main baddie, giving the acclaimed North London thespian one of his juicier parts in years.
You’ll finally get to see Black Widow on July 9, when it hits theaters and Disney+, both for pay.