In the buildup to Black Widow, a lot of fans were convinced that O-T Fagbenle’s Rick Mason would ultimately be revealed as the villainous Taskmaster, which was admittedly driven by the actor himself teasing exactly that on more than one occasion, which of course turned out to be nothing but misdirection.
That was probably for the best, when the ‘ally of the hero turns out to be the bad guy all along’ trope has been done many times before in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but Mason’s role in the franchise’s latest chapter is minimal at best. He’s only in a handful of scenes, and isn’t required to do much more than establish a pre-existing relationship with Natasha Romanoff, and fill the standard tech/gadget guy archetype that every espionage blockbuster seemingly requires.
However, Fagbenle is already teasing what could come next for Mason in the MCU, and it sounds as though he’s already got his place in the mythology all figured out.
“Listen, somebody has to hook them up with their gadgets. So I’m available at the right price. I think there’s a great space for Mason. I think he’s a really fun character and has a utility within the stories and stuff like that, so I’d certainly love to do more. I had such a good time working with Marvel and Disney on the project, so we’ll see if he does get another outing. I think he’s really fun. I’d like to see him go on some missions, that kind of Mission: Impossible thing when you’ve got your techie guy with you. He’s a lot of fun, so I think there’s potential for something like that.”
By and large, the MCU’s roster of marquee names don’t really need technical support when the vast majority of them have superpowers, but you could easily see Mason popping up every now and again when more grounded characters are leading their own projects and they need some shiny new toys to get the job done.
In the comic books, Mason goes by The Agent and is the son of minor supervillain the Tinkerer, but in Black Widow he’s an ex-S.H.I.E.L.D. operative that’s moved into the freelancing business. Through no fault of his own, Fagbenle didn’t leave much of an impression once the movie had drawn to a close, but the door is still wide open for him to become a recurring figure in the MCU.