After a decade in the Marvel franchise, Natasha Romanoff is set to finally go solo with next year’s Black Widow. But while it could be interesting to see how the heroine fares without her fellow Avengers by her side, sources close to We Got This Covered have suggested that she won’t be the only MCU regular to make an appearance in Cate Shortland’s film.
Apparently, Nat’s old friend and colleague Hawkeye has a small cameo in next year’s release. Specifically, we’re told that he’ll show up in a flashback to the mysterious Budapest mission – an oft-referenced chapter in Black Widow’s backstory that her solo debut looks set to finally explain.
Right now, the details of Clint Barton’s alleged role are still pretty vague, but given Hawkeye’s close connections to both Nat and the Budapest story, it seems like a fitting context for a cameo. After all, we already know that parts of Black Widow were filmed in the Hungarian capital, and it would be a pretty cruel tease to send Nat back to the city without revealing what exactly happened there. Not to mention that given that this intel comes to us from the same sources who told us that the Inhumans will be rebooted and that Wiccan will debut in WandaVision, both of which are now confirmed, there’s no reason to doubt it.
In any case, it was a curious move on Marvel’s part to open Phase 4 with a prequel movie focusing on a character who’s already dead in present day MCU, but you can imagine that Kevin Feige and his team have still managed to work in a few teases of things to come in the next wave of films and TV shows.
With that in mind, it’s not hard to imagine the Hawkeye cameo somehow connecting to his upcoming Disney Plus series, but then again, maybe the Budapest flashback will be more concerned with tying up loose ends than pointing the way towards the future. Either way, all will be revealed when Black Widow hits theaters on May 1st.