After all the delays, Black Widow turned out to be a fairly middling MCU adventure. Sure it was nice to see the focus squarely on Scarlett Johansson’s Natasha Romanoff, but the iffy fight choreography, flying sky base finale, and take on Taskmaster weren’t great. But nobody can deny that it didn’t introduce some very promising new MCU characters.
The obvious stand-out was Florence Pugh’s Yelena Belova, who will return soon in upcoming Disney Plus show Hawkeye. But David Harbour’s Red Guardian and Rachel Weisz’ Melina Vostokoff were also incredible, giving us a window into the MCU’s spycraft past while being charismatic as hell to boot.
Kevin Feige has just sat down with the D23 Inside Disney podcast and said they can “hopefully go forth one day within a future storyline” and that they “definitely” want them back:
“It is always the intention that when characters come in, and great great actors come in to the universe, if we have a great time with them, the audience did, that you always want to see them again. I think it’s a safe bet that we definitely want that to happen.”
That’s a relief as they both could have been given more to do in Black Widow. Red Guardian’s fight with Taskmaster was very brief and though we saw Melina battle the other widows, there’s certainly more potential there.
They might make a brief appearance in Hawkeye, though shooting on that has wrapped series and the pair weren’t seen on set so I wouldn’t bet on it.
Given Red Guardian‘s desire to fight another Captain America, perhaps the most sensible place for him to appear next would be Captain America 3. New Cap Sam Wilson is no slouch when it comes to fighting, but the genuinely superpowered Alexei may give him a run for his money (though he’d no doubt be disappointing he wasn’t facing Steve Rogers). Beyond that, Melina’s leadership skills and experience may make her a good fit for the rumored Thunderbolts project.
Either way, let’s hope we see the pair again sooner rather than later. More on this as we hear it.