Warning: This post contains Black Widow spoilers.
Black Widow sets up the introduction of Red Guardian’s superteam, the Winter Guard, to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The first movie of Phase 4 finally gives Scarlett Johansson’s Natasha Romanoff a solo movie, and it does so by also bringing plenty of new characters to the MCU. Her Russian spy family, which includes Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), Alexei Shostakov (David Harbour), and Melina Vostokoff (Rachel Weisz), plays a crucial role in Black Widow. All of them are characters lifted from Marvel’s vast comic book history and are likely to make future appearances in the MCU.
There has been plenty of talk about Yelena’s MCU future after Black Widow, but the movie also paves the way for Red Guardian to play a bigger role. The Soviet Union’s super-soldier has spent several years in prison when Black Widow takes place. He was originally one of the crown jewels of Russia as the country successfully created its own Captain America. Once Natasha and Yelena break him out, Alexei works with them to get revenge on General Dreykov (Ray Winstone), who is responsible for his time behind bars. This paves the way for Alexei to become more of a hero and help take down Dreykov and his Red Room operation. Harbour’s Red Guardian has already proven to be a big hit with audiences, so his return is quite likely, especially after Black Widow‘s ending leaves the door wide open for his story to continue in multiple…
