As Marvel Studios nears the theatrical launch of “The Unbelievable 4: First Steps,” which can function the kickoff of the MCU’s Part Six (thus closing the e-book on the franchise’s dismal Part 5), followers can not help however be laser centered on subsequent 12 months’s “Avengers: Doomsday.” It isn’t that the quartet’s first official look within the MCU seems dire; it is simply that Marvel, smarting from the franchise-hobbling failures of “The Marvels” and “Captain America: Courageous New World,” sweatily upstaged their summer time 2025 slate final March with a weird PR stunt involving a ridiculous variety of chairs.
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This isn’t the Marvel Studios of the 2010s, the place virtually each single film was a possible billion-dollar occasion. With the movie enterprise nonetheless struggling to get better from the COVID-19 stoppage and the (completely needed) union strikes, studios have to go above and past to persuade potential ticket consumers that their newest theatrical providing is worthy of a visit outdoors the home. We have seen indicators of encouragement from the field workplace successes of “Sinners” and “A Minecraft Film,” and it is doable that Marvel’s “Thunderbolts*” can be a leggy blockbuster (what with its A- CinemaScore). However even when “Thunderbolts*” and “The Unbelievable 4: First Steps” ship, they’re unlikely to smell $1 billion. Sure, “Deadpool & Wolverine” crossed the 10-figure threshold, however that was an inherited windfall from twentieth Century Fox.
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The MCU’s future would possibly simply hinge on “Avengers: Doomsday” making “Avengers: Endgame” $2 billion on the worldwide field workplace. This implies it is an all-hands-on-deck occasion movie. When you have been in a Marvel film and nonetheless have a pulse, try to be on name. However there have been a handful of names conspicuously lacking from the Day of Chairs. One of many actors most notably absent from this roll name was Scarlett Johansson. Is Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow actually, actually lifeless within the Marvel Cinematic Universe?
The MCU destiny of Black Widow is up within the air
Marvel Studios has at all times been cagey about narrative and solid reveals, however Scarlett Johansson’s run as Black Widow felt prefer it died when the actor sued Disney for breach of contract in 2021. There was a settlement (for an undisclosed quantity), and each events have been fast to make clear that every one was resolved amicably, however that is PR. This might’ve simply been the massive kiss-off.
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Past this hypothesis, there’s the fairly salient undeniable fact that Romanoff died a no-bones-about-it loss of life in “Avengers: Endgame.” Clearly, nobody is ever actually lifeless in comedian books, however films are totally different in {that a}) there is not a month-to-month difficulty demand to be glad, which suggests b) the stakes are a lot, a lot increased. We’re solely going to get so many of those movies. If loss of life is fungible, the results are no matter.
We can’t know for certain if Black Widow is as lifeless as Julius Caesar till the credit roll on “Avengers: Secret World,” however we can verify in with “Thunderbolts*” screenwriter Drew Pearson, who was requested by The Hollywood Reporter if he thinks Johansson may return to the MCU fold. Per the longtime in-house Marvel scribe:
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“I’ll preface by saying that I do not know, however I do not suppose so. I really feel like her finish in [‘Avengers: Endgame’] after which her epilogue with [‘Black Widow’] have been so beautiful. So I might be shocked, however I do know nothing about that. I’ve little or no information of what is going on on with ‘Doomsday’ proper now.”
Pearson won’t be engaged on “Avengers: Doomsday,” however he is aware of how the MCU sausage will get made. So if he thinks Black Widow is finished … Nicely, which means nothing. He is Crew Marvel. He may undoubtedly be enjoying ball, which is cool as a result of I do not need to be spoiled on what could possibly be one of many franchise’s most surprising curtain calls.
