A first-look image at Marvel’s upcoming Black Widow prequel has seemingly revealed that the film will see Scarlett Johansson’s titular hero doing battle against a classic Marvel baddie.
Despite meeting her end in Avengers: Endgame, the upcoming prequel is an origins movie and tells the story of how Russian spy Natasha Romanoff ended up becoming a key player in SHIELD.
In a telling post from Marvel’s concept artist Andy Park, Scarlett Johansson’s secret agent is seen doing battle with supervillain Taskmaster – which suggests that they’ll be locking horns when the film hits cinemas in May next year.
Park wrote on Instagram: “Check out this 1st reveal of the keyframe illustration I did for The Black Widow film… & TASKMASTER!!!”
For the uninitiated, Taskmaster is the alias of Tony Masters and a feared assassin with the ability to recreate the movements of his foes – which essentially means that he’s able to turn their strengths against them.
He was created by Marvel Comics back in 1980 and his characterisation has wildly evolved ever since – he was even a member of SHIELD at one point.
While casting for the character is yet to be revealed, a Comic-Con panel last weekend revealed that Florence Pugh will play Natasha’s surrogate sister Yelena Belova and Rachel Weisz has been cast as the leader of the super-spy training facility where Romanoff initially learnt her trade.
Comic Con also saw Marvel unveiling the rest of Phase 4 – which includes The Eternals, a Blade reboot starring Mahershala Ali, and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.