Based on how regularly he’s been talking up his desire to make a swift return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, you’d have to imagine David Harbour has been tied down to one of those multi-picture contracts Kevin Feige recently claimed his outfit was moving away from, with the actor proposing his Red Guardian show up all over the place.
Black Widow director Cate Shortland shares his enthusiasm about a solo movie for Alexei Shostakov, while there’s been rumors he could come back to lead Russian superhero team the Winter Guard, with an Easter Egg also generating plenty of debate as to whether or not actor Daniel Richters’ brief cameo as a man named Ursa was the debut of the MCU’s first official mutant.
With Scarlett Johansson’s Natasha Romanoff out of the picture, and no further appearances confirmed yet for either Red Guardian or Rachel Weisz’s Melina Vostokoff, Florence Pugh’s Yelena Belova is the only one of Black Widow‘s dysfunctional family unit guaranteed to return, with the movie’s post-credits scene setting up her role in Hawkeye.
However, Harbour has admitted that he’s got two ideas in mind for where he could show up again, covering two aspects of the MCU timeline that would show Red Guardian at different stages in his life.
I’m down for more. I have two ideas. One is seeing Red Guardian back in his prime. That’s interesting to me. But the other is going off this story, having this experience with Natasha and having this beautiful end when he takes her hand and says ‘I can’t even speak to you because I would mess it up’.
When he finds out that she was on that cliff with Hawkeye and maybe the version of the story he hears is that Hawkeye pushed her off or something, it’s a moment when Red Guardian turns back to the guy he was. He now wants vengeance for her. That I feel would play well.”
Realistically, all the Stranger Things star would need to do is shave off the straggly beard and he’d pass for young enough to convince as prime-era Red Guardian, but a prequel feels like the more unlikely of the two scenarios. Until we discover how Hawkeye‘s first season ends up and what it means for the future of the MCU’s resident archer, though, we might not be seeing him interact with Clint Barton, either.