Black Widow is finally out in the world, kicking ass in theatres and in your living room, thanks to Disney+ (with Premier Access). Fans have been waiting for Scarlett Johansson’s Avenger to get her own film for over a decade, thanks to COVID-related delays that pushed the release date back to 2020. It’s finally here, and it can take its rightful place in the ever-expanding timeline of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Is the MCU timeline complicated? In Avengers: Endgame, we last saw Black Widow, and she died. How does a superhero who is no longer alive star in her own film? Is Natasha the Zombie? Or has she come back from the dead? Is this some kind of pre-Iron Man 2 origin storey for her? What’s going on and when is it going to happen? Because Black Widow only hints at where it fits into the larger Marvel universe, here’s everything you need to know about the MCU’s Black Widow timeline.
What place does Black Widow occupy in the Marvel Cinematic Universe?
Captain America: Civil War, which was released in 2016, is immediately followed by Black Widow. Thus, Black Widow’s solo film occurs between Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War. That’s all you need to know to get a sense of her emotional state at this point in her life. Her new family, which she had fought to keep together, had just disintegrated before her eyes! As a result, the following is the new viewing order for this part of the MCU timeline:
- Civil War (Captain America)
- Black Widow
- Black Panther
- Spider-Man: Return to New York
When does Black Widow take place?
To be even more SPOILER-Y and perplexing, Black Widow takes place entirely around the 2:15:15 mark of Captain America: Civil War. We know this because the movie ends with a newly blonde Natasha hopping in her newly acquired (re: stolen) Quinjet and heading off to bust some friends out of jail (again, SPOILERS). So, if you’re watching things in order, you’d stop watching Civil War at 2:15:15, watch the entirety of Black Widow, and then return to Civil War to see Captain America free his friends. We now know that Black Widow was with Captain America, keeping the car running offscreen—and that Falcon, Wanda, Ant-Man, and Hawkeye were chilling in the Raft for a while before their rescue.
The ending of Black Widow also sets up Avengers: Infinity War, giving Natasha’s minor role in the film a lot more emotional weight. We now know that the Black Widow’s dramatic change of appearance in that film is a nod to her sister, Yelena. She’s wearing Yelena’s vest (with so many pockets) and has blonde hair like her sister. And if Yelena was blipped out of existence for five years, it would explain why Natasha didn’t shave off all of her blonde during that time, as seen in Avengers: Endgame. She was holding on to memories of her sister. And/or she was depressed, and the last year has taught us all a lot about hair care and depression. To summarise, Black Widow is set in the time period between Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War.
