FILM · 2021
Black Widow
34 archived facts 5 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
All facts (34)
- #001
(At around 46 minutes) According to writer Eric Pearson, Florence Pugh mocked Scarlett Johansson with Black Widow's iconic pose during filming, so Pearson put it in the film.
- #002
In the film, Alexei Shostakov (Red Guardian) is a father figure to Natasha Romanoff (Black Widow). In the original comics, Alexei and Natasha were husband and wife.
- #003
On July 6, 2020, it was reported that Marvel Studios executives, including Kevin Feige, were so impressed by Florence Pugh's performance as Yelena Belova that they planned to include her in future MCU films, and that she could even become the new Black Widow. Feige stated that the film was written to spotlight Belova at least as much as Scarlett Johansson's Natasha Romanoff.
- #004
Ever Anderson took on the role of young Natasha because she already speaks Russian and holds a green belt in taekwondo.
- #005
(At around the 54th minute) In the prison, Alexei arm-wrestles a giant inmate named Ursa. In the comics, Ursa Major is a Russian hero with the ability to transform into a bear, and Alexei references this by calling him a bear.
- #006
(At around 1 hour 22 minutes) Yelena accidentally calls Alexei "Crimson Dynamo" instead of Red Guardian. In the comics, Crimson Dynamo is a Russian supervillain in powerful armor who often fights Iron Man and is a teammate of Red Guardian. His real name was Anton Vanko, and he is the father of Ivan Vanko (Mickey Rourke) in Iron Man 2 (2010), whose electricity-based weapons and armor were based on the Crimson Dynamo of the comics.
- #007
In The Avengers (2012), during the battle with the Chitauri, Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) told Clint Barton/Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) that it was "just like Budapest all over again," and Barton said they "remember Budapest very differently." Here it is finally revealed that "Budapest" was Black Widow's ticket into S.H.I.E.L.D. and a mission in which she and Barton fought half the Hungarian army after bombing a five-story building, though Barton may have the stronger memory that the two hid from the authorities for 10 days (the two hiding in an air duct). In Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014), as Natasha is about to expose HYDRA's secret files, Pierce tells her: "If you do this, none of your past is going to remain hidden: Budapest, Osaka, the Children's Ward, not to mention. Are you sure you want the world to see you as you really are?" In this film, the audience learns that it implies the Budapest mission, where Natasha's decision resulted in the death of a supposedly innocent young girl — which is also Melinda May's original sin in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (2013), the TV series.
- #008
Black Widow's wrist-mounted shock weapons, usually called Widow's Bites or Widow's Gloves, were painted gold for the first time. This is a tribute to Natasha's classic Black Widow costume in the comics, an all-black suit with a gold-ringed belt and gold gloves.
- #009
In the original script, Yelena never softened toward her "parents" and still hated them at the end of the film. David Harbour had the idea that Alexei should prove he truly cared by showing he still remembered her favorite song, which led to "American Pie" being added to the opening escape scene so they could use it later.
- #010
Counting the post-credits scene of Captain Marvel (2019), this is Scarlett Johansson's ninth time playing Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow. Johansson's contract for this solo outing, though extended, is separate from her original contract. As stated in the deal, her salary for the purported final outing was $25 million (the largest of her career), plus a $6 million bonus if the film grossed over $900 million worldwide. The second condition, however, became the subject of a lawsuit between Johansson and Disney when it was reported that Disney breached the contract by releasing the film simultaneously on its own streaming service Disney+ and severely limited its box office success.
- #011
Melina takes her name from Melina Vostakoff, a Russian agent who appears in Marvel comics and later becomes a freelancer and an enemy of Black Widow known as Iron Maiden.
- #012
Scarlett Johansson asked her husband Colin Jost, a big Marvel Universe fan, to rehearse lines from the film with her, but he refused because he wanted to avoid spoilers.
- #013
(At around 2 hours) At the end of the film, as Natasha flies in her new jet, the camera tilts down to show a tree with pink blossoms. Dreykov had told Natasha that he buried her real mother next to a beautiful tree with pink blossoms (at around 1 hour 30 minutes).
- #014
The Mil-8 helicopter used in the film was borrowed from the Helicopter Museum in Weston-super-Mare, England. The 25-meter aircraft, weighing 7,000 kg, was dismantled and taken to Pinewood Studios and other locations. Its interior was modified, the windows were reshaped and it was completely repainted for the film.
- #015
(At around 25 minutes) The film Natasha watches in the trailer is Moonraker (1979), in which James Bond fights an enemy who has his own space station to hide from the authorities. This foreshadows the revelation that Natasha's main enemy, Dreykov, has his own floating headquarters that prevents S.H.I.E.L.D. from finding him on Earth. Also, in Moonraker, James Bond jumps from a plane without a parachute but survives by stealing a parachute from a villain in midair, which foreshadows a similar event in the film's final scenes.
- #016
A deliberate decision was made not to include characters such as Iron Man or Captain America, since they wanted the film to be only about Black Widow.
- #017
The film takes place after Captain America: Civil War (2016) but before Avengers: Infinity War (2018). In the pre-credits scene, Natasha can be seen with the blonde hair she has in Infinity War.
- #018
Melina's armory contains metallic blue masks. In the comics, Melina (Iron Maiden) wore a metal blue mask as part of her costume.
- #019
Scarlett Johansson describes the film as its own genre and even says it was influenced by Logan (2017) alongside The Fugitive (1993) and Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991).
- #020
Florence Pugh said she was very nervous about meeting Scarlett Johansson for the first time because she had spent hours on planes and in airports, and that she was afraid of the smell of "old suitcases." The first scene they shot together was the film's first fight scene, so on their first meeting Pugh had to play the "choke" on Johansson.
- #021
Shooting was initially going to take place in Russia, but because of the bureaucracy involved in approving work there and the time limit, they moved production to Budapest.
- #022
Rachel Weisz found it particularly fun that her character has no sense of humor at all.
- #023
Colonel Dreykov's surname means "of crap" (in Yiddish/Russian slang).
- #024
This was the last film William Hurt shot before his death in 2022. His final film was The King's Daughter (2022), shot in 2014. After Hurt's death, the role of Thaddeus Ross was recast with Harrison Ford in Captain America: Brave New World (2025). In an eerie prophecy, Natasha says Ross's health is not very good.
- #025
(At around the 53rd minute) On Alexei's left collarbone there is a tattoo of Melina's face above the word "love" written in Cyrillic. Among Alexei's many tattoos are also the names Natasha and Yelena written in Cyrillic on his right arm.
- #026
At the time of the film's release, Scarlett Johansson was the only person to appear in a film in each of the MCU's four phases (though Jeremy Renner's appearance in the post-credits series also shows he appeared in all four phases).
- #027
The main candidates for the role of Yelena Belova were Emma Watson, Saoirse Ronan, Alice Englert, Dar Zuzovsky and Florence Pugh, with Watson in the lead. Pugh was ultimately cast. According to the producers, her role as Saraya-Jade Bevis in Fighting with My Family (2019) gave her an added advantage for the cast.
- #028
(At around 1 hour 35 minutes) While Dreykov is telling Natasha how Taskmaster can imitate the fighting techniques of all her friends, in the next scene, in which Red Guardian fights Taskmaster, Taskmaster releases her claws with a metallic sound and strikes the same pose as another Marvel character, Black Panther. At the Avengers Campus at Disney California Adventure Park, Black Panther (and Black Widow) fight Taskmaster in a show called "Avengers Assemble."
- #029
The 'Red Room' returns after first appearing in The Iron Ceiling (2015), where Peggy Carter and the Howling Commandos find one of its academies, and it was later mentioned by Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow in Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) as the program that ruthlessly trained and sterilized her. It has now been converted into an air facility.
- #030
(At around 44 minutes) In a flashback scene in Budapest, as Natasha waits in her car just before the building explodes, you can hear her speaking with a slight Russian accent for the first time while on comms.
- #031
(At around 2 hours 10 minutes) In the post-credits scene, Yelena calls to a dog named Fanny. This is a nod to the nickname "Fanny Longbottom" that Mason gives Natasha/Black Widow early in the film (at around the 23rd minute) when she goes into hiding.
- #032
The film takes place in 1995 (Natasha's childhood), in 2016, immediately after the events of Captain America: Civil War (2016) in the MCU timeline (when the Avengers disbanded), and in 2023 (the post-credits scene), immediately after the events of Avengers: Endgame (2019).
- #033
David Harbour and Rachel Weisz play the adoptive parents of Scarlett Johansson and Florence Pugh. In real life they are 9 and 14 years older than Johansson and 20 and 25 years older than Pugh.
- #034
(At around 2 hours) In the final scene, Mason brings Natasha a jet. The jet was a SHIELD Quinjet that Natasha had piloted on previous SHIELD missions.
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