International spy and assassin Natasha Romanoff becomes the superhero Black Widow.

The Scarlett Johansson superhero prequel looks to tell a harder-hitting story. We haven't heard any big, concrete news—Black Widow or otherwise—from Marvel in a while. It's been around three months, in fact—which in big, multimillion-dollar franchise years is practically centuries. Today, that changes with the new trailer for Black Widow—a MCU prequel movie starring Scarlett Johansson's Natasha Romanoff. Let's take a look, then figure out what all this means.

First thing's first: Yes, Romanoff met her untimely end in Avengers: Endgame, sacrificing herself so the gang could get the Soul Stone, recycle the Infinity Gauntlet, and reverse Thanos's snap. Black Widow is something of a prequel and a... mid-quel, I guess? It follows Romanoff's early years being trained as a ruthless assassin, but the bulk of the action seems to take place in the time between 2016's Captain America: Civil War and 2018's Avengers: Infinity War.

And speaking of that action, I believe the technical term is "yowza." Directed by Berlin Syndrome's Cate Shortland, this looks as close to a straight-up spy thriller as we've seen from the MCU conglomerate, with scenes that look like they've been plucked straight out of a Mission: Impossible movie instead of the franchise that hawks Baby Groot merch every holiday season. (Reminder to self: Buy Baby Groot merch).

New characters coming into the fray are Red Guardian (Hellboy and Stranger Things star David Harbour), who looks like a washed-out Soviet version of Captain America. I cannot wait to "stan." Newly-minted queer internet icon Rachel Weisz also joins as Iron Maiden (cool name!) But maybe the most interesting casting of the lot is Midsommar and Little Women star Florence Pugh as Yelena Belova, who in the comics takes up the mantle of Black Widow after Romanoff. With Johansson now off the board, free to go summer in the Hamptons with Colin Jost, could Pugh be stepping into the role for future MCU movies? It would be a huge get for the studio, perhaps even more so than Oscar winner Brie Larson as Captain Marvel.

We know the folks over at Marvel Studios are busy putting together their new post-Endgame slate, including a bunch of TV shows for Disney+, but Black Widow sure looks like a stripped-down step in a new direction that lets its individual films lean into their own genre a little more than the famously homogenous MCU previously allowed. We'll find out for sure when Black Widow hits theaters in May 2020.

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