Trivia / Black Widow (2021)

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• Actor-Inspired Element:
  • Alexei's attempt to bond with Yelena was originally going to fail miserably, with Yelena giving him a furious Get Out!. David Harbour had the idea that he should instead succeed by revealing he remembered her favorite song. This also involved adding "American Pie" to the opening sequence to properly set it up.
  • Yelena's commentary on Nat's posing was inspired by the writers overhearing Florence Pugh talk about it on set.
• Ascended Fanon: Back when the first Avengers film came out and fanfic writers were coming up with all sorts of wacky headcanons about the six of them living in Avengers Tower together, it was accepted fanon that Clint had a habit of hanging out in the vents. In this movie, Natasha shares that part of her and Clint's infamous Budapest incident involved both of them hanging out in a vent in the subway system for two days.
• Cast the Expert: Many of the Black Widows are played by experienced stuntwomen.
• Contractual Obligation Project: Ray Winstone wanted to get released from his contract after being told he needed to reshoot his entire performance but ultimately decided to go along with the studio's demands rather than fight it out in court.
• Corpsing: While Alexei is explaining to Malina that she "hasn't aged a day" and he's been in prison a long time and has a lot of energy, Rachel Weisz is either corpsing or trying to show that she's pleased by his compliment.
• Creator Backlash:
  • Both Kevin Feige and Scarlett Johansson were not happy that the film was released simultaneously in theaters and on Disney+. Johansson ended up filing a lawsuit against Disney claiming her contract stipulated a theater-exclusive release, with much of her salary tied directly to the movie's theatrical performance— which ended up being sub-par for a Marvel film. The dispute between Disney and Johansson was quietly settled out of court within a matter of months.
  • Ray Winstone hated his final performance in the film as his entire performance was reshot due to Executive Meddling forcing him to come back and tone things down from what he did during principal photography. He called it "soul destroying" and compared it to "being kicked in the balls". He even tried to back out and force his role to be recast but decided not to risk a court battle.
• Dawson Casting: While the character's specific age is not given, Antonia Dreykov is shown to have been a young child when Natasha was a young adult. Olga Kurylenko, who plays the adult Antonia, is five years older than Scarlett Johansson. The character's traumatic injury has presumably caused her to look much older than she is.
• Delayed Release Tie-In: Due to the film's release being pushed because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
  • Lots of tie-in merchandise, most notably clothes, action figures and the Funko Pop! figurines, were released in time for its first rescheduled date in November 2020... but very early given it wound up delayed again to 2021.
  • French supermarket chain Leclerc launched a Marvel Comics promotional event in November and December 2020 with collectible stickers. They were accompanied by advertising of Black Widow that said "currently in theaters".
  • Marvel Puzzle Quest managed to release characters inspired by the movie in the original (Yelena, May 2020) and the first postponed (Red Guardian, November 2020) release dates.
  • Marvel's Avengers announced the "Red Room Takeover" event for May 2021, intending for the event to tie-in to the rescheduled release of the film, only for the film to be delayed to July. Subsequently, the event returned in July to actually tie-in to the release, with Black Widow's white costume from the film also being made available as a purchasable cosmetic.
  • Likewise, Marvel: Contest of Champions added Red Guardian and white suit version of Natasha as playable characters in May 2020 alongside Red Room - based timed events, supposed to advertise the movie.
  • The Black Widow (Snow Suit) outfit in Fortnite was released in November 15, 2020, about eight months before the film finally premiered.
• Deleted Scene: See here.
• Executive Meddling: Kevin Feige was insistent on keeping the dinner scene between Natasha and her old family in the film, despite Scarlett Johansson and Cate Shortland wanting to cut it at first. Shortland later agreed that the scene was important in establishing the relationship between them, and has grown to love it.
• Fake Russian:
  • Scarlett Johansson (Natasha, obviously), Violet McGraw (young Yelena) and David Harbour (Alexei) are all American while Florence Pugh (Yelena), Rachel Weisz (Melina) and Ray Winstone (Dreykov) are all British. Olivier Richters, who plays Ursa Major, is Dutch.
  • Zigzagged with Olga Kurylenko. Her character Antonia Dreykov/Taskmaster is Russian but Kurylenko is a French actress of Ukrainian descent who was born in the USSR just like her character.
  • Natasha's young actress, Ever Anderson, is American, though she has Russian ancestry through her mother Milla Jovovich.
• Meaningful Release Date: This film was originally intended to be released May 1, 2020, just 6 days before the 10th anniversary of Iron Man 2, which was Natasha's first appearance in the MCU. Another projected release date was May 7, 2021, the 11th anniversary of Natasha's debut.
• No Export for You: In spite of China's increasing box office importance, Black Widow did not get theatrically released there, but that is because it got caught in the shuffle once the following MCU releases wound up skipped over for a Chinese release, as Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings had badly received trailers in the country, and the Chinese government downright censors mentions to Eternals director Chloe Zhao.
• Playing Against Type: David Harbour is traditionally known for playing dour-yet-heroic protagonists who are competent in dangerous situations, a far cry from the Boisterous Bruiser with shades of Miles Gloriosus that Alexei Shostakov is.
• Real-Life Relative:
  • Many daughters of crew members appear as Widows in Dreykov's screens.
  • Violet McGraw, who plays young Yelena in the Cold Open, is the sister of Madeline McGraw, who played young Hope van Dyne in Ant-Man and the Wasp.
• Saved from Development Hell: A Black Widow film was first considered when Lionsgate commissioned a script from David Hayter back in 2004 before dropping the project, and once Scarlett Johansson became the MCU's Natasha Romanoff in 2010, Kevin Feige and Marvel were soon discussing making a solo movie. The movie finally got announced in July 2018, with Jac Schaeffer tapped to write and Cate Shortland as director. Filming eventually started in early 2019, and the movie was ultimately made, but ended up being one of the many projects screwed by the COVID-19 Pandemic hitting less than two months before its original scheduled debut, forcing three delays. The movie finally hit theaters (and streaming) in July 2021.
• The Shelf of Movie Languishment: The movie was ready to be released in May 2020, but as mentioned above, COVID-19 caused the movie's release date to be shifted around several times due to it being far too dangerous to go to movie theaters. The film was eventually released on July 9, 2021.
• Shrug of God: The filmmakers deliberately left Natasha's escape from Ross at the end to the audience's imagination, and they refuse to give an official explanation of how she did it. The most Cate Shortland will say is that she imagines it was more a negotiation than a fight, but she has no idea herself what the topic was. (A deleted scene does show Natasha getting captured and talking to Ross as she's being driven away—but then she picks her cuffs and gets out of the car.)
• Screwed by the Lawyers: Scarlett filed a lawsuit against Disney in late July 2021, all for the film's simultaneous release on Disney+ and theatres, the case was eventually settled in September later on.
• Spoiled by the Cast List: Some news stories floated around that Olga Kurylenko had joined the cast. Come the film, her name is indeed in the opening credits. For sure a recognizable actress would not be wasted in a background role. So Taskmaster, whose portrayer was always hidden during promotion, turns out have gotten a Gender Flip to be played by her.
• Throw It In!:
  • The original script simply had Red Guardian's period joke stand on its own, which Cate Shortland and both lead actresses found hackneyed and sexist. So they added the whole gag of Natasha and Yelena going into nauseating detail about their forced hysterectomies to salvage the moment.
  • While filming the scene where Red Guardian is stuck in his jacket, David Harbour actually got stuck for real. They used that take.
• Underage Casting: The prologue establishes that Yelena Belova was six years old in 1995, which would have made her approximately 27-28 during the events of the film proper. Actress Florence Pugh was born in 1996 (meaning, she is the same age as Tom Holland, who plays the teenage Peter Parker in the Spider-Man films, set in the same universe and Hailee Steinfeld who plays the 22 year old Kate Bishop, also in the same universe), and was 23 when the film went into production, making her at least four years younger than Yelena. During The Stinger, which presumably takes place in 2023 or 2024, Yelena is around 29-30 (as Hawkeye confirmed she was a victim of the Snap in Infinity War), widening the age gap between her and Pugh.
• Voice-Only Cameo: Jeremy Renner's appearance as Hawkeye is done over a communications channel that Natasha listens to in a flashback.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Emma Watson, Alice Englert, Dar Zuzovsky and Saoirse Ronan were considered for the part of Yelena Belova before Florence Pugh was cast. Ronan previously auditioned for Wanda Maximoff in Avengers: Age of Ultron.
  • Sebastian Koch and Alec Baldwin were considered for the part of Red Guardian before the casting of David Harbour. Baldwin was previously approached for the role of Alexander Pierce in Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
  • Andre Holland was considered for the part of Rick Mason before O-T Fagbenle was cast.
  • Amma Asante, Maggie Betts, Kimberly Peirce, Mélanie Laurent, Angela Robinson, Deniz Gamze Ergüven, Chloé Zhao and Jessica Gao had discussions to direct the movie before Cate Shortland was hired. Zhao would eventually go on to helm Eternals, while Gao would become the showrunner for She-Hulk: Attorney at Law.
  • Alexandre Desplat was originally supposed to score the film, but was replaced by Lorne Balfe late into post-production.
  • Because the film was originally meant to be released before The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Julia Louis-Dreyfus' cameo in The Stinger as Valentina De Fontaine was planned to be the character's debut. The film's COVID-19 related delays caused The Falcon And The Winter Soldier to be released first, making that show the character's first appearance in the MCU.
  • Initial reports stated that Robert Downey Jr. would make an appearance as Tony Stark via a repurposed Deleted Scene from Captain America: Civil War, but this ended up not happening.
  • Tie-in merchandise, as well as Marvel: Contest of Champions, depicted the film's version of Red Guardian with his own unique shield, further linking the character to Captain America. In the film proper, this shield is nowhere to be seen (except on an action figure), although Alexei does eventually confiscate Taskmaster's shield for his own use.
  • In the original script, Yelena never made up with her "parents" and still hated them at the end of the film. David Harbour had the idea that Alexei should prove he really did care about her by showing he still remembered her favorite song, resulting in "American Pie" being added to the opening escape scene so they could use it later.
  • Taskmaster hewing closer to the comics, including being Tony Masters, was considered early in the scripting process.
  • In an early draft of the script, Yelena Belova was intended to be The Heavy for Dreykov and she would have been a rival to Natasha, similar to her comics counterpart.
  • Producer Eric Pearson wanted to include a reference to Doctor Doom's home country of Latveria in the film, but it ultimately didn't make the final cut.
• Word of God:
  • As to whether Yelena was a victim of The Blip, Kevin Feige said that it will eventually be revealed in a future MCU installment. Episode 5 of Hawkeye confirms that she was.
  • According to screenwriter Eric Pearson, the Red Guardian actually believes that he fought Captain America.
• Word of Saint Paul: Olivier Richters has stated that his character, the prisoner "Ursa", is in fact the Ursa Major of the comics and is the first mutant of the MCU. There has not been any other confirmation so far that Ursa is a mutant or has any powers.
• You Look Familiar: In the Japanese dub Yelena Belova is voiced by Mutsumi Tamura, who previously dubbed Darcy Lewis.

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