Kevin Fiege hints at more Black Widow-style Marvel prequels on the way
Black Widow, an upcoming movie that will go into the backstory of Scarlett Johansson’s Natasha Ronannoff, might signal the start of a new trend in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Slashfilm reports that Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige spoke at a press conference about some of the tantalizing possibilities movies like Black Widow offer for MCU.
“Certainly this film and this story is a particular case for Natasha. But the notion of exploring the past, present, and future of the MCU is certainly in the cards for all of our characters,” Feige said. “This particular story of this particular cast is very personal, very specific to Natasha.”
A large chunk of Black Widow takes place after Captain America: Civil War but before Avengers: Infinity War, a space of time that has been previously unaccounted for. “And that period, we felt was was a right to creatively focus on to be able to discover more about our past more about our present,” Feige said. “And… give a hint at the at the legacy in the future.” If Feige’s words pan out, it means fans could see more “prequel” films featuring character backstories from “lost” periods from the MCU timeline.
Black Widow-style prequels could be big part of the future MCU
Avengers: Endgame closed the door on many heroes’ stories, making it hard for them to return. Stars like Chris Evans and Chris Hemsworth have noted over the years that they’re not exactly ready to say goodbye to their characters, so potential prequels would give them a chance to return to the roles without requiring them to return to the franchise.
The biggest added benefit: Characters could be alive or dead. Natasha Romanoff is dead in the present, but her story can continue in the past. This is kind of like what Marvel is doing with Loki, who technically died in Avengers: Infinity War but is now headlining his own series thanks to the unpredictable machinations of the multiverse. And with the arrival of Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness, Marvel is giving itself a big sandbox to play in where the timeline doesn’t matter at all. Anything can happen, which is very similar to how comic books function as they constantly reset themselves so that characters from the past can return to the present.
But for now, we’ll see how Loki and Black Widow do. If you want to see the future of the MCU, you could do worse than look at them.
Next. James Gunn hopeful for a big screen DC-Marvel crossover. dark
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h/t The A.V. Club