Warning: This post contains major Black Widow spoilers.

Black Widow has finally landed in cinemas and on Disney+ Premier Access, confirming its full cast and characters. A handful of very talented actors have signed to be part of the Black Widow movie cast in order to give the beloved Marvel superhero a standalone story. The Black Widow movie is likely Scarlett Johansson’s final appearance as the titular Avenger, seeing as its a prequel movie that takes place between the events of Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War.

Black Widow is directed by Cate Shortland (SMILF), one of the few female directors hired (thus far) by Marvel Studios. Black Widow’s screenplay was penned by Eric Pearson (Thor: Ragnarok, Godzilla vs Kong) with a story by Jac Schaeffer (WandaVision, The Hustle) and Ned Benson (The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby trilogy). Unlike other solo MCU films, Black Widow will not be an origin story. Instead, the movie will show audiences a chapter from Natasha’s more recent history that has thus far only been hinted at.

A majority of the Black Widow cast was introduced during Marvel’s presentation at San Diego Comic-Con 2019. The line-up includes Oscar winners and nominees, television favorites, and some new talent. Here’s the cast of Black Widow.

Scarlett Johansson As Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow

Scarlett Johansson reprises her role as Natasha Romanoff, the Black Widow MCU audiences have come to know and love since her introduction in 2010’s Iron Man 2. This will most likely be the final time Johansson appears in an MCU movie given Black Widow’s place in the MCU timeline and because Black Widow died in Avengers: Endgame.

In both the comics and the MCU, Natasha is a highly-skilled spy and fighter. She graduated from the Red Room Academy’s Black Widow program in a class of 28 orphaned girls who became Russian spies. Despite having no superpowers, Natasha is accomplished in hand-to-hand combat and is a pro with a variety of weapons. In the MCU, specifically, audiences have watched her work for both S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Avengers to try and do good as a way of redeeming herself for her past, which ostensibly saw her operating as more of a villain than a hero.

Black Widow marks a special milestone for Johansson as it will be released in her 10th year as a member of the MCU cast. Since debuting in Iron Man 2, Johansson’s Black Widow has been an integral role in many of the larger MCU stories, including Avengers: Age of Ultron, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War, and Avengers: Endgame. Black Widow was filmed in 2019 – a busy year for Johansson, who also appeared in Marriage Story, which co-stars Adam Driver, and the Taika Waititi-directed satire Jojo Rabbit, both of which earned her Academy Award nominations.

Florence Pugh As Yelena Belova

Florence Pugh plays Yelena Belova, another Black Widow spy trained by the same organization as Natasha Romanoff, in Black Widow. In the comics, Yelena Belova is a Black Widow agent who came up through the Red Room Academy program at the same time as Natasha. Unlike Natasha, though, who eventually defected and became a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, Yelena spent many years in the field working for the Red Room and Russia.

Benefiting from the Red Room’s training and getting some of the best marks during her time in the program, Yelena went on to be an extremely skilled spy and fighter but possessed no superpowers for the majority of her career. At one point in her comics arc, she transformed into a Super Adaptoid, allowing her to mimic the superpowers of heroes like Spider-Man, Captain America, and Captain Marvel.

Black Widow is a huge role for Pugh, who has become a rising star ever since starring in the 2014 British indie drama The Falling. Since then, Pugh has appeared in films and TV shows including Little Women, The Commuter, Lady Macbeth, The Little Drummer Girl, Fighting With My Family, and Midsommar.

Rachel Weisz As Melina Vostokoff

Rachel Weisz plays Melina Vostokoff, in Black Widow. Weisz confirmed Melina is another Black Widow agent in addition to Yelena and Natasha and that she, too, went through the Red Room Academy in her youth. Melina’s comics backstory includes her rejecting her role as a spy for Russia but forced to live in Natasha’s Black Widow shadow. This fostered a deep hatred within Melina, leading to her go from a spy to working as the villain Iron Maiden. As Iron Maiden, Melina wears a metal suit that makes her look like a cross between Iron Man and Doctor Doom and protects her as she fights. Melina has no superpowers but is skilled in hand-to-hand combat, espionage, and weapons. In Black Widow, Weisz’s character does not have a reveal as Iron Maiden and enemy to Natasha, instead playing a mother role to her and Yelena.

Weisz has been acting onscreen for the better part of 30 years. Her breakout role was in 1999’s The Mummy co-starring Brendan Fraser. From there, she appeared in films like The Constant Gardener, for which she won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar, The Brothers Bloom, and Fred Claus. More recently, she appeared in The Favourite alongside Emma Stone and Olivia Colman.

David Harbour As Alexei Shostakov/Red Guardian

David Harbour plays Alexei Shostakov, a.k.a Red Guardian, in Black Widow. In the Marvel comics, Red Guardian is Russia’s version of Captain America. While in the comics Alexei was not a super-soldier – simply well-trained in hand-to-hand combat and espionage – the MCU has elevated him to that status and granted him super strength and speed. In the comics he’s very much a mortal but is skilled in hand-to-hand combat and espionage, and he’s considered one of the best pilots in the Soviet Union. After a period of army service, Shostakov is later selected to be the Soviet Union’s answer to Captain America during the Cold War. It’s also revealed that part of his cover as a regular citizen is his marriage to Natalia Romanova, better known as the Black Widow spy known to be Natasha Romanoff.

In Black Widow, Alexei is instead partnered with Melina Vostokoff, and the pair play a parental role to Natasha and Yelena. In the opening scene, the young family is living happily in Ohio, though Alexei regrets having an undercover field role as he doesn’t have any opportunity to use his powers. He ends up in prison, with Natasha and Yelena breaking him out in order to find Melina and target the Red Room operation.

Harbour is most recognizable from his role as Jim Hopper on Netflix’s Stranger Things. But in addition to that, Harbour has had a bevy of other roles, including starring as the eponymous character in 2019’s Hellboy reboot, as a government agent in Suicide Squad, and as the neighbor of Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio’s angst-ridden couple in Revolutionary Road.

O-T Fagbenle As Mason

O-T Fagbenle plays Mason in Black Widow. Fagbenle has acted in feature films before but Black Widow is arguably his biggest to date. Mason is described as being a “fixer for spies” and someone who helps others in the criminal underworld (via Comic Book). It’s possible Mason is an original character created for the MCU, seeing as he isn’t based on anyone specific from the comics.

Fagbenle is best known for his role on Hulu original series The Handmaid’s Tale. The actor plays Luke Bankole, husband to June, the protagonist of the series played by Elisabeth Moss. Fagbenle has been acting on film and in television since 2002 when he first nabbed a role on the British soap EastEnders. Since then, Fagbenle has appeared in TV shows and films like Happy Endings, Non-Stop starring Liam Neeson, and HBO’s Looking.

Ray Winstone as General Dreykov

Ray Winstone plays the primary antagonist of Black Widow. He is the leader of the Red Room program that recruits young girls and indoctrinates them into becoming spies and agents. His death was supposed to form a major part of Natasha’s defection to S.H.I.E.L.D., with his execution proof of her change of heart – it’s what happened in Budapest, the event she referred to with Hawkeye. Dreykov survived the attack and went on to expand and run the Red Room program for many years, including indoctrinating and using Natasha’s sister Yelena. Yelena eventually breaks free of the Red Room indoctrination, sending evidence to Natasha of the program’s (and Dreykov’s) continued existence, and the two team up to bring the program and their abuser down.

Ray Winstone has a long career in movies, most notably appearing in Martin Scorsese’s The Departed, as well as Cold Mountain, Beowulf, and Sexy Beast.

Olga Kurylenko as Antonia Dreykov/Taskmaster

Olga Kurylenko plays Antonia Dreykov, a.k.a. Taskmaster, who is a skilled fighter and starts off the movie as an agent of the Red Room, hunting down the supply of inhalant gas that cures the program’s indoctrination. One of Black Widow’s major twists Taskmaster’s identity as the daughter of General Dreykov – who was mentioned only casually previously as a casualty caught in the crossfire of Natasha Romanov’s Budapest mission to bring down the general. Many theorized in advance of the movie’s release that this was in fact the MCU’s version of comics villain Iron Maiden, the alter ego of Rachel Weisz’s character Melina Vostokoff. Turns out Marvel misdirection was at it again, and the movie instead introduced a new character to take the moniker of Taskmaster. The comics version of Taskmaster was a man named Tony Masters. While this incarnation is a new interpretation, Antonia kept Taskmaster’s main talent from the comics: mimicking the fighting style of her opponents, demonstrating that she’s studied other MCU heroes such as Black Panther, Captain America, and Natasha Romanoff herself.

Olga Kurylenko has notable film and action movie credits, including as a Bond heroine in Quantum of Solace, also appearing in Oblivion alongside Tom Cruise and Hitman. Her character survives Black Widow, so it’s likely Taskmaster will appear at some other point in the MCU’s future.

Black Widow Supporting Cast

As with all MCU projects, there’s a large supporting cast contributing their talents to Black Widow. Perhaps most notably, William Hurt reprises his role as Secretary Ross – a particularly ailing one in this outing – after several MCU outings, and before a rumored appearance in the She-Hulk Disney+ series. Ever Anderson (Resident Evil: The Final Chapter, the upcoming Peter Pan & Wendy) plays a young Natasha Romanoff, and Violet McGraw (The Haunting of Hill House) plays young Yelena Belova. Further Cast members in Black Widow include: Ryan Keira Armstrong as young Antonia; Michelle Lee as Oksana; Nanna Blondell as Ingrid; and a wide cast of widows played by Simona Zivkovska, Erin Jameson, Shaina West, and Yolanda Lynes, among others. Most of these supporting characters survived Black Widow, and so may appear again in future MCU projects.

Next: Every Upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe Movie

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