MCU Phase 4: 15 Essential Rumours & Theories You Need To Know
14. The Black Widow Solo Film Is Set Entirely In The Past
The Rumour:
According to That Hashtag Show, a leaked synopsis for Cate Shortland's upcoming Black Widow film confirms that it will be set entirely in the past, although perhaps not the date fans had initially had in mind.
"At birth the Black Widow (aka Natasha Romanova) is given to the KGB, which grooms her to become its ultimate operative. When the U.S.S.R. breaks up, the government tries to kill her as the action moves to present-day New York, where she is a freelance operative. The standalone film will find Romanoff living in the United States 15 years after the fall of the Soviet Union."
The Response:
Although it remains to be seen if this synopsis is accurate, That Hashtag Show have rarely been wrong on the MCU-rumour front. The timeline also makes a great deal of sense, placing Widow's story four years before she was assigned to profile Tony Stark by Nick Fury (the U.S.S.R. collapsed in 1991).
In any case, if the film details Nat's time before joining S.H.I.E.L.D., then we can expect both Samuel L. Jackson's Nick Fury and Jeremy Renner's Clint Barton to appear too. The latter was told to assassinate Romanova before deciding to recruit her instead, and given that the film is likely to detail her joining S.H.I.E.L.D. - if it is set in 2006 - then there's a good chance the pair will be involved.