New “Black Widow” Clip Explores Romanoff Family Dynamic

The various Marvel streaming shows have been dominating the news cycle, with The Falcon and the Winter Soldier recently nabbing #1 in the Neilson original streaming series ratings, and some new Loki footage dropping ahead of its June 9th release. Amidst all the small screen surprises, though, the folks at Marvel Studios recently turned toward the film side of their universe and dropped a new Black Widow clip at the 2021 MTV Awards.

The new footage features Scarlett Johansson’s titular heroine teaming up with her sister Yelena Belova, played by Florence Pugh (Fighting With My Family) to fend off an armed motorcyclist as they race through a busy downtown street and it provides a good glimpse at what the action of the film, which is said to be something of a spy thriller, will be like.

More importantly, though, it highlights the familial bond between the sisters. While the bullets are flying and Natasha is weaving in an out of traffic in an attempt to elude their pursuer, the two women are bickering in the way only siblings can. Yelena is frustrated there’s no plan and Natasha is fed up with the second-guessing. By the end of the clip, their assailant has been stopped and they breathe sighs of relief, though the tension between them is still palpable.

This interaction is all the more intriguing because, up until this point, and even with the trailers that have come out, how the characters would function together has been something of an unknown quantity. This has been all the more vexing because Yelena Belova is traditionally a villain. In the comics, she first appears as an assassin sent to kill Natasha Romanoff, and almost succeeds. This has led to some speculation that Yelena Belova’s portrayal will be similar to Mysterio’s in Spider-Man: Far From Home, where the true bad guy first appears as a compatriot before turning on the hero at a critical moment.

But it might not be as simple as that, as there is also comic precedent for Belova more of an anti-hero. While she remained a hard-nosed character that focused on a lethal kind of justice, similar to characters like The Punisher, she did act as an ally for Natasha on several occasions, and even took up her mantle. And given that Natasha sacrificed herself to retrieve the Soul Stone in Avengers: Endgame, a more likely scenario is that Black Widow is introducing a character to take on the mantle for a new generation.

But even if that is the case, it’s likely that, given her comic background, that’s she’ll be a very different kind of Black Widow. Whether she ends up as a hero or not, fans don’t have long to wait to find out, as the film itself arrives in cinemas and on Disney+ on July 9th.