We’re bummed this Black Widow backstory was cut from “Captain America: Civil War”

Captain America: Civil War was the longest Marvel movie yet, so it might be surprising that a lot of footage still ended up not making it into the film. Joe and Anthony Russo, who directed Captain America: Civil War, told IGN that in managing the film’s giant cast and expansive story, some sacrifices had to be made.

The Russo Brothers, who also directed Captain America: The Winter Soldier and will tackle the upcoming Avengers: Infinity War and its as-of-yet untitled sequel, in particular mentioned that an interaction between Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes was cut. However, Comicbook.com has also shared that one of these deleted scenes may have had to do with one of our favorite Avengers: Natasha Romanov’s Black Widow.

It seems that the novelization of Civil War includes a moment that didn’t make it into the film. In it, Nat reveals to Cap a horrifying aspect of the training she received. It reads:

“Natasha studied Cap’s expression of resolve. Finally, she said, ‘In Russia, in the Red Room, there were dozens of us. All girls, all young. We lived together. They let us be friends. Then they dropped us in the tundra, two weeks’ walk from home, with just enough supplies for one of us to survive.’”

Cap looked at her, understanding her meaning.

“‘Don’t let them push us into the cold,’ she said.”

We don’t know where in the script this moment comes — though there’s some speculation it happens just after Peggy Carter’s funeral.

Moviepilot.com explains that the authors of novelizations are typically given an early draft of a film to work from — so it’s not uncommon for novelizations to include moments that fans later see in deleted scenes.

Regardless, we can’t help be bummed that it didn’t make the final cut of Civil War. Natasha’s story does a lot to explain the choices she makes in the film — and why, for her, the regulation of the Sokovia Accords is preferable to the Avengers being torn apart.

The Avengers are the closest thing Natasha has — or perhaps has ever had — to a family, and she doesn’t want to lose them. After being forced to compete for those essential supplies and indirectly (and, likely, directly) killing her friends to survive, the last thing Natasha wants is to endure a similar scenario.

The scene also seems to be a better handling of Natasha’s backstory than the one in The Avengers: Age of Ultron where she tells Bruce about her forced sterilization and equates herself to a monster. (For the record, this feminist and Marvel fan believes that Natasha says she’s a monster because she’s murdered people, not because she was sterilized; regardless, it’s indisputable that that moment wasn’t handled particularly well.)

We’re hoping that this moment was filmed, and that we’ll get to see it in a deleted scene — it’s as good as we’ll get till Marvel finally listens to fans and makes a Black Widow movie.

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