• An unexpected moment in “Avengers: Endgame” hints at what could be next for Black Widow.
• The standalone Black Widow movie is in pre-production and is slated for Marvel’s Cinematic Universe Phase 4.
• This moment leads us to believe the movie will be an origin story prequel.
• Warning: There are major spoilers ahead for “Avengers: Endgame.” Do not read ahead if you haven’t seen the movie.
• Visit INSIDER’s homepage for more stories.

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“Avengers: Endgame” had a record-breaking $US1.2 billion opening weekend at the box office. One of the most unexpected moments of the three-hour superhero epic gave us some clues at to what the upcoming Black Widow standalone movie will be about.

In “Avengers: Endgame” the Avengers discover that Thanos has destroyed the Infinity Stones and the only way to reverse the infamous ‘snap’ from “Infinity War” is to travel back in time and retrieve the stones. This sets into motion the rest of the movie, as our heroes are split into teams across space and time.

In “Infinity War,” to retrieve the Soul Stone, Thanos had to travel to the planet Vormir and sacrifice something he loved more than anything else in the world: his daughter, and Galaxy Guardian, Gamora. In “Endgame” Hawkeye and Black Widow, aka Natasha Romanova, are also sent to Vormir to retrieve the Soul Stone. They soon realise that in order to do so, one of them must die.

In the end, Black Widow takes the plunge and this is one death in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) that appears to be irreversible. After the final battle, Natasha is mourned by the family of heroes and it’s very clear she is not coming back.

At least, not in the future.

The Black Widow movie will likely be a prequel

This means all signs point towards the in-progress Black Widow standalone movie being a prequel to the current “Avengers” franchise, rather than a movie that moves her plot forward into the future. With Cate Shortland as director, the movie is currently in pre-production and has no release date yet.

This idea makes sense given that many fans feel that Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow was never given a proper origin in the MCU, after being quickly introduced in “Iron Man 2.”

The MCU movies have occasionally hinted at her KGB training and origins as an assassin, but “Age of Ultron” is the one that digs the deepest. In it, she reveals she cannot have children, but her emotional trauma and history is never fully explored.

Who is Black Widow?

In the comics, Black Widow/Natasha Romanova is first introduced as a Russian spy and assassin. Orphaned as a child, she is trained by the USSR from a young age to be an agent for her country. In the comics, she is brainwashed as well as biotechnically enhanced to explain her long lifespan (not unlike Captain America).

Black Widow fights against both Captain America and Iron Man in the comics as a villain before she later has a relationship with Hawkeye and ultimately defects. She eventually joins the S.H.I.E.L.D. espionage group, now as one of our heroes.

The standalone origins movie will most likely be built off these nuggets of information as Black Widow joins Brie Larson’s “Captain Marvel” as one of the first female superheroes to helm their own Marvel movie.

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