Black Widow's Surprise Taskmaster Reveal Fell Completely Flat
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Before the release of Black Widow, there was a big mystery surrounding who was playing Taskmaster in Scarlett Johansson's long-delayed solo MCU movie.
Marvel fans knew who Taskmaster was in the comics (Anthony 'Tony' Masters, who hasn't been in the MCU to date), but there was an expectation that Black Widow would see the MCU deliver another villain twist and a big reveal.
So fans speculated how O-T Fagbenle would be revealed as Taskmaster since we knew next-to-nothing about his character, or how Rachel Weisz would be revealed as Taskmaster given Melina's antagonistic relationship with Black Widow in the comics.
As expected, Black Widow did have a surprise Taskmaster reveal up its sleeve and it's meant to be a big emotional moment, but it falls completely flat. To go into the reasons why, we need to go into spoilers so look away if you haven't seen the movie yet.
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When Natasha Romanoff (Johansson) finally comes face-to-face with Dreykov (Ray Winstone) in the Red Room, he reveals the truth about Taskmaster and it's nobody any fan would have guessed.
It turns out that Taskmaster is Dreykov's daughter Antonia, played by Olga Kurylenko, who Natasha thought she had killed in Budapest years ago. Kurylenko is credited in Black Widow's dark opening credits, but she wasn't reported as being part of the movie ahead of release.
Dreykov explains how Antonia was left with devastating injuries after Natasha blew up the building she (and her father) were in when Antonia was a child. Rather than looking after her like a normal father would, Dreykov brainwashed his daughter and turned her into the ultimate assassin who can mimic any fighting style.
Since this is the family-friendly MCU, Natasha chooses not to fight Antonia and saves her during Black Widow's explosive climax. She frees her from Dreykov's mind control and, hopefully, Antonia's future is brighter than her past now she's free from her father.
The reveal is meant to pack an emotional punch as it's Natasha literally facing the demons of her past and redeeming herself by saving Antonia. However, it doesn't quite work as we've seen hardly any evidence of Natasha being haunted by this dark episode in her past.
The only previous reference to Dreykov's daughter and what Natasha did to her was in The Avengers when Loki taunts Natasha over the 'red in her ledger'. It initially appears as though she's shaken by the throwback, but her emotional response is revealed to only be a ruse to get Loki to reveal his plan.
Even in Black Widow, Yelena (Florence Pugh) has to physically force Natasha to remember what she did in Budapest. She saw Antonia's death as "collateral" in order to rid the world of Dreykov, unaware that he actually survived her assassination attempt.
We've known Natasha in the MCU for more than a decade and The Avengers nod remains the only hint of what she did. The Natasha we've seen had moved on from the past and didn't seem troubled by it, so why should Marvel fans be that bothered by Antonia's reveal?
Arguably, it's more of a failing of the MCU to not give Johansson more material to work with over so many movies. Natasha didn't really get any solo moments to shine or develop her character across the entire MCU, beyond some impressive fight scenes every now and then.
The Black Widow reveal is meant to retcon how we viewed Natasha and her past trauma. It hints that rather than her not being haunted by what she did, she essentially forced herself to forget what she did as she viewed it as a necessary evil, but that doesn't mean she didn't carry guilt over it.
That's fine, but then Black Widow doesn't give it the exploration it deserves. Like its nods to real-life issues, the movie gets distracted by its MCU trappings rather than properly delving into the dark subject matter.
When Antonia is revealed, Natasha's first instinct is to apologize to her as she's confronted with the horror of what she did. It's not long until the explosions start though, so the revelation is relegated to a subplot, rather than being the focus of the climax.
What could have been a Civil War-esque emotional and restrained final battle becomes your standard MCU climax.
Had the reveal come earlier in the movie, we could have felt the full weight of what Natasha did and really explored how she reacted to it. Instead, it's built up as this big reveal that is quickly brushed over because there's fighting to be done.
Natasha's redemption is relegated to one brief moment when she frees Taskmaster before the Red Room crashes to the ground. It's a nice character beat, a sign of how she's grown since Budapest, yet it hardly seems to balance the books given she effectively condemned Antonia to a lifetime of servitude.
Antonia is fully freed from Dreykov's influence in the end and with it probably comes the end of Taskmaster's brief MCU run. With Johansson also bidding farewell to the MCU, it probably means this is the only exploration we'll get of her past misdeeds too.
Given how beloved Taskmaster is for some Marvel fans, the Black Widow reveal has been treated as a misstep on a par with Iron Man 3's Mandarin reveal. Shang-Chi will introduce the 'real' Mandarin, so there's a chance we could see Taskmaster again in the future in a different form.
However, we feel the real missed opportunity is with how Black Widow hints at truly delving into Natasha's past and the red in her ledger, only to end up giving it a surface-level treatment before getting distracted by less interesting matters.
Black Widow is out now in theaters and available to watch on Disney+ with Premier Access.
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