Film Theory: The Dark Avengers Are Coming! (Marvel Phase 4 & Black Widow)

so we've got another Marvel movie for me yes sir I do coming up with original ideas for a series with over 20 movies and it has got to be getting difficult actually it's super easy barely an inconvenience oh really well you remember how what stars we ripped off Avengers endgame boy do I on your left so there are more of us Poe I am Iron Man and I am all the Jedi making money off the same ideas in different movies in the exact same year is tight glad you think so sir because that's exactly what I'd like to do to kick off this next phase of Marvel oh really well you know how he killed off Han Solo and then inexplicably made a movie about his backstory like a year later I mean Solo right yeah yeah well I was thinking of doing that exact same thing with MCU but this time with Black Widow ah it sure is easy to be creatively bankrupt when you make all the movies it certainly is sir but wait a minute wasn't solo a huge flop whoopsie whoopsie [Music] hello Internet welcome to film theory the show that has canceled all of its red-carpet premieres for the foreseeable future honestly those were a huge expense for a YouTube channel anyway and maybe we should have quit him earlier but you know hole popped popcorn just isn't the same I am going through butter flavors substitute withdrawals here people speaking of which appreciate this video friends since it's likely the only Marvel content that you'll be getting for the better part of this year the events of 2020 have resulted in a lot of massive societal shifts but one of the most interesting to think about has been the absolute shattering of the Marvel movie cycle that we've been on for nearly a decade now one movie at the beginning of the year and one at the end sometimes if they were feeling ambitious they throw one into the summer months - it was nice it was just part of the routine like the changing of the seasons he had the changing of superhero posters at your local AMC theater april showers bring May flowers may star-lord brings July spider-man it gave you something to look forward to but now because of world circumstances the house of cards that is the Marvel Cinematic Universe has started to tumble and making it even worse at a time when it was already at its most vulnerable I mean 2020 was already gonna be a stressful year for the MCU you're coming off the conclusion of the biggest cinematic story arc in history a crossover of epic proportions with fan favorites leaving and roles being passed to a whole new generation of faces it's already a pretty big shift now you have to get people on board for the next big thing to come so that's challenge one challenge to your house of cards suddenly has expanded into much more content you're no longer just asking audiences to invest in two or maybe three movies a year but now there's also Disney Plus streaming shows that we have to watch oh ok I already had a subscription to watch Lizzie McGuire so I guess I'll fit in one division and do I have to watch Falcon in the Winter Soldier gotta be honest I'm not particularly interested in that one maybe we should start calling this the Marvel connected universe just to keep that same MCU acronym because cinematic just isn't accurate anymore will this newer bigger universe collapse before it even gets started at least they have this new phase being kicked off by their biggest stars spider-man far from home in the guardians of the oh wait that's right a long time ago guardians the see volume 3 was scheduled to release in 2020 as the second part of phase 4 smart move get some of the most beloved characters to lay the groundwork for all the new adventures set to come spider-man on earth and the guardians up in space but in 2018 the series's director James Gunn was fired off the project only to be rehired a year later but at that point the damage was done guardians was pushed back to 2022 leaving the big welcome to phase 4 banner being hung on none other than Black Widow a film that was already on the bubble of being direct to streaming starring a character who died in the last movie not replan chalk all that up to challenges three and four and now everything has been pushed back with Black Widow coming out in November with the domino effect to every other release date I mean I was just eager to get through the 2020 movies and back to the Thor's and dr. Strange's that I loved at the top of 2021 but no gotta wait a whole nother year for those guys and that is challenge number five so after years of dominating the box office and tons of smooth sailing the Disney Marvel Machine already had itself some rough waters ahead and now they're even rougher with Black Widow as the figurehead at the front of the ship and all of this is without me even mentioning the intricately crafted story arcs between franchises where characters are introduced twists happen and those ripple effects are felt through the next wave of content all of which is dependent on perfectly timed releases of course that last point wouldn't matter all that much if Black Widow were really just an after-the-fact Phase three movie that most people think it is I don't think that's the case the more I see of the Black Widow trailers the less I think this is gonna be an empty filler movie in the release slate despite the world expecting Disney to just drop Black Widow on to Disney Plus like onward or just follow the home premiere trend that a lot of other movie studios are using these days Disney didn't do that and beyond financials and contracts and things I think there's a reason for that a solid narrative reason that affects the entirety of phase four movies I think that they pushed back the releases of two years worth of productions so Black Widow would get a chance in theaters because lack Widow is gonna be as important to establishing phase four of the MCU as Iron Man was to establishing phase one because get this I think they may be setting this whole thing up for the next generation of Avenger a new team of evil Avengers known as the Dark Avengers let's look at the facts I've already spent some time in a previous theory talking about how the Black Widow trailers may have already hinted at the true nature of taskmaster that the he is actually a she Melina Vostok off coming from the same training program as Black Widow only with a chip on her shoulder because Natasha Romanoff is so much better at everything and also left the rest of the girls trapped in that awful program milena gets herself injected with the Super Soldier Serum and comes back to kill the friend who left her and the rest of the widow family cool that's all well and good a taskmaster as I see him or her is just our villain of the week in this case kind of like ant-man two's ghost or Iron Man two's whiplash he may come back here or there but she's not the overarching threat for the entirety of phase 4 but there is another much more sinister and further reaching villain marching across this movie general Thunderbolt Ross now many forgotten by this point but Ross is actually one of the earliest characters introduced into this whole universe with his first appearance happening way back in the second MCU movie ever 2008 oft forgotten Incredible Hulk here you have an unusual problem you should talk you should listen professor we were putting a team together who's we forgotten for good reason to Twitter was buzzing the other day about Iron Man 3 being the worst Marvel movie it's serious guys have you watched Incredible Hulk I mean look at those CGI ABS I've seen more realistic looking stomach muscles on a PlayStation era Tekken character now in that movie general Ross was the bad guy hunting down the Hulk but since then he's been more or less a neutral force in the film's acting as US Secretary of State with his biggest act coming in the form of the sokovia accords from Civil War the past four years you've operated with unlimited power and no supervision that's an arrangement the governments of the world can no longer tolerate I think we have a solution sokovia accords but there's a lot more to this character than meets the eye his sinister nature has always dwelled just below the surface and in 2008 Marvel Comics transformed Ross from a mortal military leader into something a lot more fearsome the Red Hulk an uninhibited tactically intelligent adversary for our lovable guy in the comic story line he was created as part of yet another Super Soldier program led in part by the criminal organization known as Intelligencia now here's where things get interesting you see well the Intelligencia and its core members have yet to appear in the MCU one of its key allies and partners for creating the Red Hulk has appeared in the MCU advanced idea mechanics or aim for short I'm a proposal I'm putting together myself it's a privately funded think tank called advanced idea mechanics we're aimed for sure you see in Iron Man 3 while everyone was busy complaining about the Mandarin aim was working in the background pulling the strings they created the extremest program which made super soldiers in possession of heat-based ability breathing fire now Red Hulk doesn't exactly work the same way Green Hulk does when Red Hulk gets angry instead of getting stronger he gets hotter wait a minute didn't we just say that aim was making heat-based super soldiers in Iron Man 3 and we know that in Black Widow Ross is gonna be playing a big part and that the plot will have to do at least in part with the return of the Super Soldier Serum so now if only we could confirm that aim was gonna be a part of this movie we'd have ourselves a pretty strong case for Red Hulk appearing sometime before the end of the film and would you look at that aim is gonna be making an appearance in Black Widow see if you freeze frame and look at the medical equipment at the bottom of the screen you can clearly see a I M marked on the side so we have the man who will become Red Hulk the project that made the Red Hulk and the return of the MC use evil scientist organization known for making heat based soldiers all combined into this one movie seems like it's more than just a coincidence now all that alone would be noteworthy but that scene with Yelina on the gurney is interesting for another reason not only does it introduce a m-- back into the MCU but it also reflects a plot from the comics with some bizarre implications if you look closely at that freeze-frame you'll notice that yalena below va's face has a neat little seam running along the top nope that's not our hairline and it's not a wig that's been snatched you see the Marvel breakdown comics involved Natasha getting facial surgery to look just like Yelena she does this to convince Yelena that super spy dome is dangerous which you know you don't facial swap surgery to really do its called watching any Jason Bourne movie ever anyway if this scene is real and not just manufactured for the trailer it looks like the MCU might be trying to follow in the comics footsteps with yalena hosing as Natasha or Natasha posing as Yelena one of the two again I don't know why you need to take it that far considering that in Winter Soldier Natasha had herself some pretty convincing facial disguise technology but again super spies gotta be super but here's the twist my friends what if the facial swap doesn't end with this movie so Yelena and Natasha swap identities or faces or whatever maybe Natasha's trapped in prison or something and Yelena is going out posing as her big whoop right think again remember how an infinity war and end game black widows hair was blond rather than the usual red the change was never explained in continuity the characters definitely had bigger issues to deal with a Natasha's choice of hair color but it was kind of strange to see this famously redheaded character just go blonde for a movie and a half for no reason we all just dismissed it as a way to mix up the look of her character keep her identity hidden while she's a fugitive from the government her heck just sell more black widow toys now with blonde hair action but what if the blonde hair was an indicator that this isn't the real Black Widow the one that we know and love and continue to question why she belongs in a team full of gods and tech billionaires now hair alone wouldn't be all that much evidence but what about the vest we see it in the trailers for Black Widow Yelena is wearing a tactical vest no sleeves two snaps along the neck three double bracketed straps that wrap around the body all warned and a half zip it is the exact same vest that we see Natasha or Natasha wearing an infinity war during the subway fight scene to protect vision a tactical vest no sleeves two snaps along the neck three double bracketed straps that wrap around the body all worn in a half zip originally I thought that Marvel Studios was gonna do exactly what Marvel Comics attempted in 2002 replacing Natasha Romanov with Yelena Bulova as the new Black Widow that year Marvel released an entire year's worth of black widow comics without Natasha but that wasn't a super popular decision after a year's hiatus the Black Widow comic returned with Natasha back in the main role and Leyna cast as a villain moving forward and that made us be our biggest clue as to Elena's real purpose in the MCU between Ross's involvement in the movie and Yelena's likely impersonation of Natasha I believe Yelena is gonna become the first member of MC use Thunderbolts eventually leading to the reveal of a new team of villains the Dark Avengers let's start with the Thunderbolts this is a weird little Marvel team that has wildly varied members depending on what version it is but the general idea is that Thunderbolts look like superheroes on the surface but are more of supervillains in disguise or superheroes being misled by a super villain Red Hulk ran a Thunderbolts team consisting of heroes like The Punisher who eventually turned on him when he realized that Ross was up to no good and wiped out almost the entire team other notable leaders of the Thunderbolts include Baron Helmut Zemo and Norman Osborn both of these figures are upcoming in the MCU Baron Zemo was already in civil war and we know that he's making a return in Falcon and the Winter Soldier we also also know that a twist in Black Widow will be important for Falcon in the Winter Soldier so the connections there just continue to deepen all of it is a major indicator that the Thunderbolts are gonna be playing a large role moving forward and Yelena could serve as a perfect member of that almost heroes supervillain team as for Norman well he's already been hinted at and spider-man far from home as we covered in a previous theory so if Norman Osborn does indeed join the Thunderbolt crew well it'll give Marvel the chance to upgrade the Thunderbolts to the Dark Avengers it's exactly what Norman Osborn did in the comics he joined the group he took it over and then he made them into the Dark Avengers and think about it we may already be on our way there an evil hulk and an evil Black Widow things are definitely starting to take shape and heck we all know that the most exciting storylines are when the heroes end up fighting themselves I mean that's what the Power Rangers taught me so there you have it friends why Black Widow maybe more worth our time than anyone expected and why Disney really wants to make sure it releases in theaters now the biggest obstacle standing in the hero's way isn't past master or Thunderbolt Ross or even the Dark Avengers it's just an enemy that's too small and too difficult for any of them to overcome now it's just a waiting game for the real world heroes to save the day so we can finally get back to watching the fictional ones on screen but hey that's just a theory a film theory [Music] you

Channel: The Film Theorists

Views: 2,680,844

Rating: 4.9289532 out of 5

Keywords: marvel, mcu, avengers, endgame, marvel phase 4, disney, disney+, disney plus, black widow, phase 4, marvel phase four, black widow trailer, black widow movie, dark avengers, taskmaster, red hulk, endgame final battle, marvel trailers 2020, spiderman, spiderman back in mcu, final trailer, avengers endgame, avengers portals, falcon and winter soldier, marvel disney+, marvel disney plus, film theory, film theorists, matpat, film theory marvel, marvel theory

Id: aS17ZuhJin8

Length: 14min 54sec (894 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 23 2020

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[u/LavaCouch]

As someone who said he was never really into comic books, MatPat always seems to have pretty well rounded and solid MCU prediction theories, even when they aren't always right.

[u/Golden_Spider666]

Interesting theory. Don’t think it’ll happen based solely on the fact that the MCU writers have proven time and time again that they are capable of taking things in a completely unforeseen direction. The entirety of Endgame I was basically going “your plan is to what?!?”

[u/57orm]

The whole black widow is actually her sister in IW bc of her appearance and outfit seems kind of weird to me. The whole situation could go in a handful of different ways. Maybe the sister died and she's honouring her death and life by wearing her vest and dying her hair blonde, maybe they had a competition on who could rock who's style better; or maybe it's actually swap-closets-with-your-sister-day, an annual tradition for anyone in the red room(obviously kidding).

Hell it could even be a red herring, which is weird bc red herrings usually occur before an event, but infinity war is technically after BW, and nothing happens to natasha or her sister, she just stole her sister's wardrobe just "because".

We see in endgame's "prologue" that her red hair is growing out, with the blonde colour only present on basically the bottom half, so that is the sole reason why the theory of the sister getting plastic surgery to look like black widow is kinda odd to me. Unless she purposefully dyed the top half of her hair red to pretend that the dye was "fading"(I don't know the terms lol), which would seem like such a weird thing to do in a time like post-snap.

[u/ghirox]

Let's be honest, once Norman Osborn is brought into the MCU he's 99% going to the sinyster six instead, and k don't think Sony will allow him in non Spiderman movies

[u/tundrat]

Good catch with AIM being in the film. I somehow haven't heard about them even in casual discussions about the trailers.

Where is this image from?

[u/zeldapunkgrrl]

The Black Widow replacement/swap theory doesn't really make any sense when you take Endgame into account. So I'm a bit confused as it seems you did some research into the comics and the outfits people are wearing and details like that, but then you seem to completely ignore everything in Endgame which blatantly contradicts your theory. And it's not like some minor things either that are hard to miss, they're really noticable and obvious things in the movie. Things like her red hair growing back in showing that her hair was dyed blonde, the fact that Hawkeye needed to have a very strong connection with her when they go to get the soul stone otherwise that sacrifice would have been meaningless and not worked, the fact that said sacrifice is permanent and can't be undone as stated and shown in that movie which would make it pretty much impossible to have both Black Widow and Dark Avenger Black Widow at the same time.

Point is it is clearly our Black Widow who dyed her hair blonde, sacrificed herself, and is forever dead. This couldn't be more apparent in Endgame. So unless you have some explanation of them switching at some point for some reason, and then for some other reason they switched back before Endgame. Like this all just makes no sense. For this theory to hold any water you really have to explain the events of Endgame for Black Widow, otherwise this is just kind of a load of nonsense. Certainly an interesting idea, but one that seems to be contradicted by what we see in the movies.

[u/CasLok]

Super easy, barely an inconvenience

[u/Pixelboi16]

Honestly, this theory seems to give more for an introduction to the Masters of Evil rather than the Thunderbolts imo.