#Black Widow Faces Off Against Taskmaster in New Sneak Peek Image

A new still from the MCU’s hotly-anticipated movie Black Widow has been released. The picture shows Natasha Romanoff aka Black Widow, played by Scarlett Johansson, facing off against the villainous Taskmaster. The image was revealed by Empire, which carried an interview with Johansson in which the actress explained how her movie showcases its strong female characters.

“I think this film, in particular, is very much reflective of what’s going on in regards to the Time’s Up movement and the #MeToo movement. It would be such a miss if we didn’t address that stuff if this film didn’t take that head-on. I think, particularly for Cate, it was so important for her to make a movie about women who are helping other women, who lift other women up out of a very difficult situation. Someone asked me if Natasha was a feminist. Of course, she is, it’s obvious. It’s kinda an asinine question.”

Chronologically, Black Widow takes place after the events of Captain America: Civil War, but before Avengers: Endgame. Taking a break from her Avengering days, Natasha goes back to her roots, to put an end to the organization that turned her into an assassin in the first place, and continues to do the same with other women.

Natasha is joined by a coterie of old allies, most prominently Yelena Belova played by Florence Pugh. It has long been rumored that Yelena will be taking the place of Natasha as the new Black Widow, and the director of the film confirmed back in July that Johansson’s character will indeed be passing on the baton to Pugh in some fashion.

“[Kevin Feige] realised that the audience would expect an origin story so, of course, we went in the opposite direction. And we didn’t know how great Florence Pugh would be. We knew she would be great, but we didn’t know how great. Scarlett is so gracious, like, ‘Oh, I’m handing her the baton.’ So it’s going to propel another female storyline.”

As far as Taskmaster is concerned, he is a highly-skilled assassin, who in the comics has a superhuman ability to mimic the fighting styles of others and beat them at their own game. In the trailers released so far, Taskmaster can be seen fighting in the style of Captain America, Hawkeye, Black Panther, and Black Widow herself, meaning Natasha will have her hands full in her matchup with the mysterious assassin.

Fan expectations are sky-high for the movie to be a fitting farewell to Black Widow in the MCU. Although the release date for the feature has been pushed back repeatedly, Disney has maintained they intend to release Black Widow in theaters instead of going the VOD route that has become more and more popular in recent times.

Directed by Cate Shortland, Black Widow features Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow, Florence Pugh as Yelena Belova, David Harbour as Alexei Shostakov/Red Guardian, O-T Fagbenle as Rick Mason and Rachel Weisz. The film arrives in theaters Nov. 6. This news comes from Empire Online.

Topics: Black Widow