WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for Black Widow, now in theaters and on Disney+ Premier Access.
Eric Pearson, who wrote the screenplay for Black Widow (based on a story by WandaVision showrunner Jac Schaeffer and Ned Benson), revealed that he had no idea what the post-credits scene that he wrote was actually intended for.
The scene featured Florence Pugh’s Yelena Belova meeting with Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (referred to in this scene as just “Val”) at the grave of Natasha Romanoff, where Val (in which was intended to be the first appearance of Louis-Dreyfus’ new character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but due to Black Widow being delayed by the COVID-19 global pandemic, Val made her debut instead in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier streaming series on Disney+) informs Yelena that her next target is Clint Barton, Hawkeye, the man nominally responsible for Natasha’s death (he and Natasha were given the assignment of acquiring the Soul Stone during Avengers: Endgame and it wasn’t until they were there that they discovered that one of them had to die to get the stone).
All Pearson was told was that the scene had to involve Val telling Yelena that her next target was Hawkeye, which we all now know is set-up for the Hawkeye Disney+ streaming series set to star Jeremy Renner and Hailee Steinfeld as Kate Bishop, but at the time, Pearson knew nothing of the sort. He explained to The Hollywood Reporter, “I was like, ‘Who am I screwing over? Something is going on! I don’t have an answer for this.’ They were like, ‘You don’t need to. We are going to figure that out.’ I remember writing it and feeling super guilty. ‘I hope whatever writer is working on this next chapter is going to be OK with what I’ve done to them.’”
Pearson also shed some more insight into how he wrote the scene, “When they told me, ‘We have a character named Valentina Allegra de Fontaine who is coming in and she’s going to be played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus so we need her and Yelena,’ I was so excited. Obviously, just a huge fan. I think we knew there was going to be some sort of at the gravesite scene happening. I like the emotional closure of that. It’s not spoken outright, but it is implied they have erected a gravesite for her in Ohio, where they spent that time, which I think is touching and great and emotional. Then, I loved taking that poignant moment and flushing it down the toilet with Valentina blowing her nose, just intruding on this very personal moment. That kind of stuff is my favorite in the world.”
We will likely see Yelena’s attempt at fulfilling her contract when Hawkeye debuts on Disney+ sometime later this year.
Directed by Cate Shortland, Black Widow stars Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow, Florence Pugh as Yelena Belova, David Harbour as Alexei Shostakov/Red Guardian, O-T Fagbenle as Mason and Rachel Weisz as Melina Vostokoff. The film is now playing in theaters and on Disney+ Premier Access.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
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