'Black Widow': Marvel's Latest Prequel Harbors Mimetic Foes, Secretive Pasts and a Major Identity Crisis (Trailer Breakdown)

With what appears to be the final trailer for May's Black Widow arriving just a little under two months before its release in theaters, even more layers have been peeled back on just where exactly we will find super-spy-turned-Avenger Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson) in the prequel film. Offering more details into her sisterly bond with Florence Pugh's Yelena Belova, as well as her dealings with mysterious mimetic foe Taskmaster, the trailer amps up the action to an eleven while still leaving plenty of questions unanswered. In order to clear up just a few of those questions, as much as any casual fan can attempt to, I'm here to break down the trailer and speculate freely on where the film might take the Marvel Cinematic Universe as it kicks off Phase Four this year.

Marvel Studios' Black Widow (out May 1) sees Scarlett Johansson
reprising her role as super-spy Natasha Romanoff aka Black Widow,
as she traverses her dark past in order to unearth a global conspiracy
and mend the broken relationships she left behind

The trailer kicks off with a similar reunion to the one we got in the film's last trailer, albeit with much less gunplay between Johansson's Natasha Romanoff and Pugh's Yelena Belova. While the first reunion found them crossing paths with one another in some apartment in Europe, we now find the two "sisters" each cradling a beer, as Belova muses on Romanoff's departure from her life in the past. With a brief shot of a trailer parked in an empty field, this location could be either where Belova's been staying since her last run-in with Romanoff, or more likely where Natasha has been hiding out since we last saw her in Captain America: Civil War. Picking up a short time after the events of that film, which saw Natasha on the run from the government after the enactment of the Sokovia Accords, this could be where she has been laying low. Eventually, it seems, her past comes knocking at her door. While Belova entertains Romanoff with the fantasy life she conjured for her fellow trainee, we get glimpses into what could be the third act of the film, which sees Romanoff clad in white fending off an army of soldiers. 

Florence Pugh stars as Natasha's sister figure Yelena Belova,
a fellow Black Widow who once trained in the Red Room

Before that, however, we return to the past, as we're introduced to the central antagonist of the film in Taskmaster. Once known as Tony Masters, he was born with the natural ability to mimic the observed actions of others, including super-powered beings. Using the ability to become a master criminal and skilled tactician, his position in the film has placed him in charge of the Red Room, the training program that turned Natasha into the unflinching super-spy she is now. While we get very little information on the villain himself, we learn that not only is he training young women -- including Belova herself -- to be his personal soldiers through the Red Room, but he has also been studying Natasha's movements since her time with S.H.I.E.L.D in Iron Man 2, as he views security footage of her taking on guards of Hammer Industries. Before we learn more about who else Taskmaster has been studying, both Natasha and Yelena agree that they must go back to where it all started, that is, back to Mother Russia. 

While the identity of Taskmaster remains a secret, could it be a figure from Natasha's
past in Russia? Or someone much closer to her among the ranks of S.H.I.E.L.D.?

Before she was ever an Avenger, or even an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., we learn Natasha had perhaps a more familial bond with two other faces from her past. As we meet David Harbour's Alexei Shostakov and Rachel Weisz's Melina Vostokoff once again, they tote similar messages from the previous trailer: that they are Natasha's family and will fight by her side. While Harbour's gruff warrior, known as Russia's Captain America-counterpart Red Guardian, appears eager to join the fight against Taskmaster following his escape from a high-security bunker, Weisz's motherly figure to Natasha seems far more reluctant to traverse the past. With the trailer offering us a minor peek behind the closed doors of Vostokoff's own past, one shot revealing a metal mask that could reference her origins as Russian espionage agent Iron Maiden, Weisz's character could be hiding much more behind her reluctance to join Natasha than she's letting on. Still, as the character dons a similar white suit to that of Natasha's in what appears to be the final battle, the two could be connected in more ways than one. 

While David Hardour's Stranger Things persona Jim Hopper might be unwillingly at the
hands of the Russians when we find him next, Alexei Shostakov seems quite at home in Soviet red

As Natasha and Yelena get reacquainted with the two, we see glimpses of the team gearing up for battle. While we see Taskmaster pursuing Natasha and Yelena on the streets, we also see the villain squaring up against Red Guardian, using a handful of fighting styles that appear all too familiar. Be it his skills with a bow and arrow, a shield or claws reminiscent of one Wakandan king, it seems Taskmaster has been studying the likes of other Avengers alongside Natasha in order to go toe-to-toe with those who stand in his way. Also on the hunt for Natasha is General Thaddeus E. Ross (William Hurt), as he tracks down the Avengers following the events of Civil War. Ross' presence in the film could be one of the many elements that begin to fill in the holes in the events between that film and Avengers: Infinity War.

Despite meeting her ultimate fate in Avengers: Endgame last year, Johannson's
skilled Avenger springs back into action in this prequel adventure 

With the trailer concluding with Natasha's line about choosing between what the world wants you to be and who you are, the internal conflicts within the central characters of this film are apparent. While Natasha struggles with the darker parts of her ledger between being a deadly agent and an Avenger, her "family" in Yelena, Alexei and Melina have their own issues to sort out about who they were trained to be in their past lives, and who they are now. At the center of global conspiracies and dangerous identity crises, that is where we find the origins of the Black Widow.