#Recast Black Widow and Give Her a Fucking Movie

[nevermindirah]

I’ve seen Black Widow

thoughts below the cut

I loved it. I cried.

It’s pretty standard white feminism, nothing groundbreaking, but as a small story about a human being struggling with her identity and her place in the world, chef’s kiss.

There were enough callbacks that it didn’t feel like they’d taken Natasha out of her context, but it wasn’t an Endgame-style victory lap and rightly so. There were more callbacks to things that had previously happened in this one movie than there were to all 6 of the previous movies she’s appeared in. The fucking fireflies. They got to me. And the whistling? OUCH MY HEART

I didn’t realize until the moment Yelena handed it to her that that’s the vest Natasha wears in Infinity War. That’s when I started crying.

The set pieces were inventive as hell. I was genuinely surprised by: the avalanche, the Red Room being in lower Earth orbit, Natasha and Malina switching places with the masks from Winter Soldier, and especially, fuck, little Antonia who Natasha thought she’d murdered turning out to be the Task Master.

I loved that there wasn’t some big reveal like Malina was her birth mother or some shit. I loved that it’s left open how much or even whether Natasha keeps in touch with this one of her two families — while she and Yelena might be able to have an honest relationship after “It was real for me too,” Malina and Alexei showed realistic (which is to say, meaningful but fucking small) character growth. Those two are never going to be parents to Natasha, not how she deserved, not how every child deserves. I loved how honest this movie was about that.

The opening credits sequence was fucking traumatic, though, and here’s where we start the criticism of white nonsense. Yes, girls are probably the world’s greatest underappreciated resource. Especially girls of color. Who we see in this movie all over the place as nameless soldiers under the most extreme mind control yet seen in the MCU. Widows of color suffer and die repeatedly in this movie. It absolutely tracks that the Red Room would expand its post-Soviet operations and steal baby girls from all over the world, but they could’ve picked more of the white extras to be the ones to die painfully.

I know they did this so they wouldn’t be criticized for having an all-white cast. But they still had an all-white lead cast. I was charmed half-naked (of course my mask was still on, I saw this movie in a theater!) by the very pretty man who kept setting Natasha up with gear, but I can’t remember his name, and his only defining characteristics are pretty, charming, and frequently asleep. The moment at the end where she called him a friend would’ve been a fuckton better if she’d called him by name several times by that point so we could remember it, and if she’d, I don’t know, mentioned something that shows she pays attention when he talks, that shows she cares about him as a person even just a little bit beyond how he’s useful to her.

And you know what would’ve been a better way to get the Task Master off the field at the end? The Black teenager (fuck she looked so young) who went to her could have said, “Hi, my name is ___, I’m your sister and I’m going to get you out of here. What’s your name?” Instead her much shorter one line was entirely focused on helping the white girl. A different Black Black Widow was the one who said to Yelena something like of course we came back for you. We see Yelena holding her hand, but if we could only have one and not both, the screen time would’ve been better spent on learning this young woman’s name. A piece of her humanity that isn’t just using her newfound agency to choose to save the white lead.

They could’ve taken this opportunity to give us at least one Black Widow who was both Russian-born and visibly Asian. You know, since Russia is an enormously multi-ethnic country and even before modern immigration you don’t have to leave Russia to find people of color. We could’ve gotten a few sentences about the scientist who invented the deprogramming gas. We know she was in Malina’s age cohort so she was more likely to have been born in the USSR, and we know she had to have been exceptionally smart and brave even for a Black Widow to invent this formula and ensure it would free some of her sisters. Handled badly, this of course could’ve gotten into Asian math-nerd stereotype territory. Handled well, this minor character would’ve had a name — I think Yelena called her Oksana as she watched her die? — and a layered backstory. Malina could’ve even shared a memory of her, one thing that she and Oksana shared when they were baby Nat and Yelena’s ages.

Or they could’ve recast Scarlett Johanssson with an actress of any Asian ethnicity that could plausibly have been found in the USSR in the 80s, but, you know.

It is extremely not lost on me that both ScarJo and Rachel Weisz are Jewish and I wondered if they might do something in the direction of making Jewish Natasha canon. I’m relieved they didn’t go there in the end, and I’ll happily keep my Jewish Nat headcanons here where I can play with them and keep them safe from corporate bullshit.

To wrap this up, that post-credits scene made me so happy. I am so here for Yelena trying out every “the 90s are back” fashion trend she missed out on the first time around all in one outfit. What’s her name from Falcon & Winter Soldier turning up as Yelena’s boss or whatever and assigning her to kill Clint was exactly the right amount of crossover. We’ve only just met this character, I love her, and I’m fucking delighted that instead of spending yet more screentime on any of the white dudes who’ve already had plenty of it in the 23 previous MCU movies, we got to spend these last moments of the movie with Yelena.

Natasha Romanoff will return in my Sam Wilson and Nile Freeman are Cousins WIP (where she will be having a heart-to-heart with Andy)

Yelena Belova will return in Hawkeye (if Marvel knows what’s good for it)

[annes-andromeda]

Fanon Marvel cause they got I S S U E S

This isn’t really a fanfic thing, more or less what I envision the MCU would be in MY head. Granted not everyone’s gonna agree with these points, but that’s fine. Well all got our own opinions☺️

Q: Who survives the Snap in Fanon?

A: Steve, Thor, Bruce, Natasha, Clint, Nebula, Gamora, Rhodey, Rocket, Scott, Okoye, Shuri, Pepper, Wong, Valkyrie, Loki, and Tony

Q: Will anyone be recast?

A: Yes. Monica Rambeau is Captain Marvel instead of Carol Danvers. Make of that as you will.

Q: Are there gonna be any major changes?

A: Not for the most part, as I haven’t watched all the Marvel movies. However, these would be the most prominent ones:

* T*ny Stark is an anti-villain. His story has been changed to mostly fit the Superior Iron Man storyline. The IM trilogy would stay the same since I haven’t seen them, as well as the first two Avengers movies. However, he gets his immediate change in Civil War, where we find out that he worked for HYDRA the whole time, and wanted the Avengers to sign the Accords so the organization didn’t get found out. I feel it would’ve been interesting if we had seen Tony turn from a man who pretended to help others survive, into a man who only ever did things to help himself survive. If you don’t like this change: well then suck it cause it’s my fanon🙃

* Steve and Thor are in a relationship. This is mostly a personal preference, but I genuinely think they’d be a good couple. Their feelings would begin to come out in AOU, after the party scene. The two have a drink, slow dance, and confess there feelings. Simple, but cute (I think). Steve would think of Thor in Civil War, while Thor would have a scene in Ragnarok, in which he calls Steve and gets his opinion on everything that has happened to him (Odins death, Hela, losing Mjolnir etc). In Infinity War, they reunite and share a big kiss Pirates of the Caribbean style. As for Endgame: Steve doesn’t go to the past (I.e fucking up the timeline and Peggy’s happy life) and Thor stays on New Asgard to rule as King, with his consort by his side.

* CA:CW- People like Rhodey and Natasha don’t just immediately agree to the Accords. Instead, they go undercover and try to find out what the government is actually doing; Peter is on Team Iron Man until he finds out that Tony is HYDRA. It sucks that M*rvel really out here just making Peter iron boy instead of... ya know... Spider-Man; Civil War has a scene where Steve reminisces on his mother (his real moral compass fight me) and we focus more on him and less on Tinkie’s man pain; Instead of Tony being upset that Bucky killed both of his parents, he’d only get upset about his mother, as he actually wanted his father dead. Got this idea from a post where basically a bunch of people were talking about how Tony was probably HYDRA the whole time, which is where I got the idea. Feel free to add anything else.

* IW: Loki and Gamora don’t die. I feel like they killed off Loki a little too early since he was just getting the arc he so desperately needed. While I don’t really know what to do with him yet, I do know that he’ll be in a relationship with Valkyrie. I mean, did you see their fight scene? The sexual tension. As for Gamora, well we all practically hated it when she died and hated it even more when they brought her 2014 counterpart back from the past. Someone on Quora said that an alternative for Thanos to sacrifice on Vormir could be Ebony Maw, as out of all of Thanos’s children, he worshipped him the most. Maybe Thanos would hesitate as this was his most loyal child, but he does it cause gotta wipe out half the universe or whatever. It wouldn’t be as tragic tho, but (1) that’s the price we gotta pay for Gamora to stay alive, and (2) are we reeeaaally supposed to pity Thanos? Thanos? The guy who only ever fell in love with Death???. Anyways back to Gamora: I actually wanna do something for her. If you’ve ever seen RWBY, one of the main characters essentially loses her arm when she tried to save her friend. I know it sounds cruel for Gamora to loose a limb, but hey, sometimes you just like seeing your fav characters suffer🤷‍♀️. I was thinking it could go two ways:

- (1): Gamora loses her arm like the character in RWBY i.e, saving one of her friends like Mantis, Quill, or Nebula.

- Or (2): Thanos uses the Reality Stone to make the Guardians + Peter and Strange think that they have the upper hand. Strange uses his magic to hold Thanos down while the others try taking off the Infinity gauntlet. Once the gauntlet is nearly loose, Quill would try to strike him, as Nebula realizes that the whole thing is an illusion. But before she could warn the others it’s too late, and Gamora looses an arm to her boyfriend, leaving him and everyone in complete shock. I like this option more, as it would show not only just how cruel Thanos is, but that he never really loved Gamora. He just favored her above all his other kids. And hey, I’m a sap for angst.

* Feel free to add anything else.

* EG: So in the first bullet, I already said which characters survive the snap and that Captain Marvel isn’t Carol, but Monica. Aside from that, I haven’t really thought much of what to do with Endgame. Surprisingly, it’s difficult to write a better story for this one. What I would most like to happen, however, is more character moments. Thor’s PTSD and traumas being taken more seriously, and instead of him gaining weight he loses it (cause according to Tinkie’s dumb rant that’s what gets an audience to take your turmoil seriously. Pls don’t hate me for this decision). Bruce doesn’t turn into Professor Hulk, and his traumas are actually talked about. Also he gets closure on his relationship with Natasha (I know it’s not that great but I personally like it). Clint dies instead of Nat and we remember that Nat was the leader of the Avengers for like five years. Steve properly mourns his friends and actually acts like Steve Rogers and not a fucking imposter. We actually see what happened in Wakanda after the Snap, with Okoye and Shuri at the head of it all. Also Pepper would be stand in for Tony, cause ya know, she has a life outside of him and is actually smart. And her and Scott help with the Time machine or what other plan I or anyone can come up with. Again, feel free to add anything else.

Q: Will there be any new characters added?

A: For now just one: A robot named Iris (aka Iron Blade), created by Tony for HYDRA. I’ve made a summary of her here:

* Iris is an android created by the billionaire Tony Stark, who possesses a synthetic body made of Tungsten Carbide which is powered by the arc reactor in her chest. For years Stark worked into making Iris highly advanced, while also keeping her secret from the rest of the world until she was ready to be used by the organization HYDRA. She was trained by HYDRA in combat and artificial intelligence, transforming Iris into a dangerous, ruthless killing machine. However, she still managed to keep some essence of personality thanks to Tony, who refused to have her be simply mindless. This resulted in Iris inheriting some of Tony’s more negative traits, while even accepting his lavish lifestyle. Although she may act like him, Iris has her own traits which vary from being charismatic, eloquent, and sophisticated to privileged, arrogant and cruel. Due to HYDRA’s influence, Iris is mostly misguided and blindly follows orders.

* Iris was eventually revealed when Tony tried forcing the Avengers to sign the Sokovia Accords as a means to keep HYDRA underground. She was introduced as a new recruit of the US government, in which she had a hand in writing the Accords. When the Avengers found that Iris was created by not just HYDRA but by Tony, this caused a huge riff in the team. The people on Team Iron Man immediately turn on him once finding out that he created Iris, which in turn resulted in them finding out that not only had he been providing the organization with weapons, but was a member himself. Out of all the team members, Iris has the largest fallout with Bucky Barnes (the former Winter Soldier) and Natasha Romanoff (Black Widow), as she mostly worked as their antithesis, showing what probably would’ve occurred had they never recovered from their manipulation at the hands of corrupt organizations.

* After the fight between Iron Man and Captain America, Iris went into hiding alongside Tony, who was no longer a member of the Avengers. For the next two years, Iris stayed by her creators side as he intended to carry out his boss’s plan. The titan Thanos had ordered Stark to help him eradicate half the universe. Tony agreed to the plan, as he believed that Earth had been ungrateful for his attempts at ‘saving’ the world. He would help Thanos, so long as he ensured his safety and payed him. Iris, programmed to follow orders, agreed to the plan without question.

* Once Thanos arrived on Earth, Iris would go to Wakanda to stop the Avengers from destroying the Mind Stone, all the while Stark attempted to kill the Guardians of the Galaxy, Doctor Strange, and Spiderman (also the only one who knew of Tony’s true alignments). Iris, failing to retrieve the Stone, joins Tony on Titan while Thanos fights the Avengers. Despite the Avengers attempts, Thanos gets the stones and does the Snap, in which Tony and Iris survive and go into hiding once more.

That’s pretty much it. I made this cause I’ve been thinking about this for a while, and I wanted to share my opinions. Feel free to add anything or give constructive criticism.

[darkshrimpemotions]

My hopes and dreams for Avengers 4 (highly unlikely)

MAJOR SPOILERS for Avengers: Infinity War under the cut.

So I just read an interview with the writers of Infinity War and Avengers 4 who pointed out (rather evilly) that both movies were written together and shot back-to-back, before anyone knew that Spiderman: Homecoming and Black Panther were going to be hits. So those deaths weren’t written with “oh but of course they’ll be brought back” in mind. And the writers have emphasized that the deaths are real, they’re not just easily reversible, and have cautioned fans not to be too optimistic.

However. Writers are slippery motherfuckers who troll all day long for fun. And there’s no way Kevin Feige is going to let a record-breaking billion-dollar character like Black Panther disappear after one solo film, or get rid of Spiderman so easily after they worked so hard to get him into the MCU, and with good results (his box office wasn’t too shabby either).

We’ve also heard a lot about how Avengers 4 is going to radically change up the MCU, and even more (if possible) about how many of the original Avengers’ contracts are up after that film. There have been rumors of recast rolls and possible departures, and Chris Evans in particular has not only confirmed his departure from the MCU, but has even talked in the past about leaving acting all together.

And I’m sure no one failed to notice that of the original Avengers team, every single one survived The Snappening (I mean, except for Hawkeye, who we have no definitive confirmation for, but...probably he survived it?).

So we have a bunch of dead new characters with booming franchises, a bunch of living old characters with franchises that (with the exception of Ragnarok) have not gotten quite the positive reaction they started with from their last films, and a lot of chatter about big changes.

This is what I think might happen in Avengers 4, with regards to all the deaths.

They will defeat Thanos somehow, and thus will have all the stones back.

They will argue about whether to use the Time Stone to save everyone, and ultimately decide they can’t risk it.

Shuri (who fucking survived, dammit, don’t tell me she didn’t) will restore the Mind Stone to Vision.

The survivors (and Vision) will then make the horrible discovery that the Soul Stone will not just relinquish its haul of super special hero souls as easily as it did the rest of the universe, Because Reasons. And that it requires a hero’s soul in trade for every hero’s soul it releases. Because Reasons.

So Heimdall and Loki are probably screwed no matter what. Gamora is iffy, because although her death was less mystical in actual mechanism, it was still Thanos’s payment for the Soul Stone. So maybe there’s some wiggle-room, but I’m not going to mess with that for this theory.

Of the people who survived, these are the trades I think would be the most amazing (admittedly, some of these are deeply wishful thinking):

Tony - Trades with Peter Parker. Of course he does.

Thor - Can’t have any of the people back that he wants most (Loki, Heimdall, his parents, his lifelong friends), so he trades with Groot because he’s seen what losing all his friends has done to the Talking Rabbit, even if Rocket would never admit it.

Nat - Tries to trade with Nick Fury. He tells her no, and gives her some cryptic clue that will eventually lead to unlocking all his secrets and essentially make her the new Nick Fury.

Bruce - Takes a cue from Thor and tries to trade with Quill (refuses to leave Gamora), Drax (is finally at peace), and Mantis, who hasn’t experienced much since leaving Quill’s asshole dad and takes him up on it.

Steve - Tries to trade with Bucky, but Bucky refuses to go (”with you till the end of the line” makes a final appearance). Steve trades with T’Challa instead, and stays with Bucky in the Soul World.

Vision - Trades with Wanda.

So there you have it: Spiderman, Black Widow, Black Panther, War Machine, and Scarlet Witch (presumably also Hawkeye, Ant-Man, and the Wasp) come out of the thing unscathed. At some point, Jane Foster takes on the mantle of Thor (somehow, don’t ask me to write the damn thing), and Riri Williams joins as Ironheart. Captain Marvel is their new leader, sort of (several members would GREATLY like to contest that assertion).

T’Challa goes home to Wakanda and continues to be a total badass. We keep him far away from Avengers movies from now on, if only for his own damn protection (maybe he hangs out with the remaining Guardians sometimes...they get people killed slightly less often).

And speaking of Guardians...Rocket surveys his odd collection of surviving friends (Mantis, Nebula, and Groot), shakes his head, and starts advertising for crew members. Valkyrie and Korg probably roll up at some point. Valkyrie becomes the leader, obviously. Rocket is relieved; he hates being the captain. Too many pep talks.

[sharcncarter]

and I loved black widow since I was a kid. she's a powerful character who has not gotten a fair shake at all in the MCU. she's always been sidetracked or tacked onto another (male) character's storyline. let her have her fucking movie for fucks sake. recast her, I don't care! just give me a fucking black widow movie!!!

mood

[ntshastark]

i literally have no idea what marvel is gonna do in the next phase(s) bc like

you can trust them to keep milking as much money as they can for as long as they can but the actors won’t stay forever, so they have two options

either they end the mcu when the actors don’t want (and can’t be obligated to) be in the movies anymore or they get rid of the characters

bc recasting isn’t something that can be done quietly in a franchise like this and the actors (some more than others *cough* rdj) are a big part of what makes those characters so popular

the first option is the one that makes more sense and would be the best creatively-wise. (think tv shows that ran/are running for more than they should to the point that it seems like the writers don’t know what the fuck to do with the characters and/or the story anymore)

the second option is the one that makes more money. so.

anyway. to get rid of the characters they can a. kill them b. make them retire. obviously it doesn’t need to be the same to every character, and some actors may even want to stay forever and act like they don’t even need to make other movies and wHERE THE FUCK IS SHERLOCK 3

but some people are gonna have to go. and like. how many of those can you see actually retiring without it being completely ooc? trying, sure, but actually looking at your window, seeing thanos high on extremis riding a giant skull-with-tentacles robot emh style while making out with abomination and polishing loki’s horned helmet and just going “nah, i’m too tired for this shit”? i mean, there’s a reason why both tony and clint came back on cacw (and for once it’s a character - and not (just) money - related one).

so, that leaves us with two options: either they ruin your fav’s characterization or they kill them.

and like, what about after they get rid of those characters? is there gonna be someone to “inherit” their title? bc there are some comic options

(this is only about the 6 original avengers)

iron man

- there’s rhodey, who was im for a while when tony was... dealing... with his alcoholism, but don has been there for almost as long as robert and it’s not an arc as famous as the following ones on this list (besides, it’s a bit counterproductive to rhodey’s character imo, but that’s another story)

- there’s riri williams but it’s really recent and it would have to be a really well-received plot for them to do it in the movies

thor 

- there’s jane but it’s also really recent and natalie has been there for as long as chris (plus they don’t seem really interested in keeping her anyway :))) )

hulk

- there’s amadeus cho but, again, too recent (although i wouldn’t mind my one true love jennifer walters stepping in but this isn’t about all -fam characters, just legacy ones, otherwise we’d be here all day)

black widow

- there’s monica chang in the ultimate verse, which i literally just found out while writing this post while looking for something completelly unrelated. i really prefer to ignore anything ultimates but from what i gathered she took up the mantle after nat was killed by clint bc she killed his family bc she was a traitor and ultimates can fucking choke

- apparently ultimates jessica drew also became black widow but listen. if they introduce jess as anything other than spider-woman i’ll fucking riot. also, her ults self seems to be a fucking mess which. what a surprise. who would’ve expected this from this universe

hawkeye

- there’s mY GIRL KATE BISHOP, but like. cassie lang is a kid in the mcu. billy and tommy aren’t even born yet. their parents aren’t even dating. so young avengers is a no-go, i guess. unless they’re formed by her, peter and - L M A O - wanda. ahem. like, they could still make kate, and maybe even introduce some of the other ya but idk 🎶 you were all I wanted... bUT NOT LIKE THIS 🎶

they’re doing a runaways show tho, so i don’t think they plan on bringing the young avengers to the big screen. and lbr if mcu hawkeye goes, like... who cares

captain america

finally. the elephant on the room.

well, as everyone knows, there’s sam and bucky. i personally think sam should be the one to get the title but we all know that’s not what’s gonna happen, considering they shove that shield on bucky’s hand at any given opportunity in literally every movie he appears

so. steve gave up the title at the end of cacw. in a perfect world we’d get chris in either the commander rogers or the nomad uniforms but i think the captain makes more sense here (imo it’s the same sentiment as nomad with a less ridiculous costume, but anyway), and like they have a pretty good opportunity to mimic the comics where steve asks tony to make bucky become cap if he dies, considering tony has the shield now. i saw someone suggesting tony is gonna offer steve the shield back and he’s gonna refuse bc of reasons and ask him to give it to bucky instead. which is pretty fucking ridiculous and overly dramatic, but really likely to happen tbh.

are they gonna kill steve? hopefully who knows. chris’ original contract is coming to an end but some actors reportedly renewed theirs some time ago and i highly suspect he was one of them. steve did seem to not mind retiring that much in the begging of cacw tho (which????? anyway) so like

who the fuck knows anything tbh

i’m sorry if you read this post expecting any type of conclusion but i do state in the opening sentence that “i literally have no idea what marvel is gonna do in the next phase(s)”

the only conclusion here is that i’m glad i’m not kevin feige bc what a fucking mess

[asagimeta]

Jumping on the Skrull related bandwagon...

I know everyone has heard the Skrull theories by now but I was typing up this email to my mom and it got long so I decided why the hell not? I might as well post it (Warning: *Because* it's an email to my mom I didn't exactly take care in wording or add screencaps or .. you know... refrain from rehashing the information everyone already knows, so take with a spoon of understanding before reading)

So, we have some important MCU related news, Captain Marvel (wich will come out in November 2018) is going to introduce the Skrulls to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, wich means there's a more than likely chance that someone we know in Marvel- one of our heros- is a Skrull, these things are the main villains of Captain Marvel, wich takes place in the 1990s and before Nick Fury lost one of his eyes, we have a bit of a Wonder Woman thing going on here, because why was Captain Marvel around fighting in the 90s but yet hasn't made an appearance so far in all of these big battles? Where has she been? Unless they give her "We fucked up" logic like poor Wonder Woman and decide to make her sit out by choice for the last thirty or so years, the only explanation is that something happened to her, wich means that either the Captain Marvel the movie introduces is going to be the Skrull (wich ... for Marvel's first female lead superhero movie... would be the most gigantic kick in the nuts you could imagine and I don't think Marvel is really THAT stupid) or, much more likely, someone we know and love is the Skrull agent that defeated her and is responsible for locking her up/holding her captive somewhere.... until the upcoming films when she assumingly breaks free or gets released to help out in Infinity Wars Part 2, here's what we know (or atleast, what we think we know)

Infinity Wars Part 1 will be released in May of 2018- this is when Thanos goes crush-crush on all of our heros and possibly kills someone (who might just be the Skrull, wouldn't THAT be something? We get this big, emotional death scene, everyone crowds around the body and oh look it's a green alien! Where has the REAL hero been for the last thirty years!?)

Antman And The Wasp will be released in July of 2018- As Antman isn't *properly* an Avenger yet and we don't actually have confirmation that he'll be in Infinity Wars to my recollection, this could be something of a side story explaining where he is and how he gets into Infinity Wars part 2

Captain Marvel will be released in November of 2018- This is when the Skrulls will be the main antagonists, wich would fit in almost perfectly with Infinity Wars in terms of pace and timing (you know, if you sort of sweep Antman under the rug, get it?? ANTman under the rug? Nevermind) This would be the perfect time to explain why one of our heros was revealed in Infinity Wars part 1 to be a Skrull.... or..... could reveal them as a Skrull here, during a flash-forward in Captain Marvel (much like how Wonder Woman flashed forward from the 1900s to present day at the end, wow, Captain Marvel is really licking up to Wonder Woman isn't it?) wich could reveal Captain Marvel escaping/being released from her imprisonment and identifying the Skrull either by name or flat-out unmasking them, leading into....

Infinity Wars Part 2, wich will be released in May of 2019- There has to be a reason Marvel is skipping their 2019 winter film (Marvel usually releases Febuarary/March - May - July - November and repeat every year, yet in 2019 we go straight from November to May with no winter release, why? We know there won't be one, Phase Three is set, the next movies in line are listed as "Phase 4" wich starts in July 2019 with Spiderman's sequel) Most likely they want the Skrull reveal to lead straight into Infinity Wars Part 2, meaning the Skrulls will be another enemy to fight along with Thanos

Here's the thing, Infinity Wars Part 2 rounds out Marvel's "Phase 3", and is "The end of the Marvel universe as we know it" according to Marvel themselves, everyone has been assuming that that's because someone big like Iron Man or Captain America will die because in the comic books they do- in the comic books everyone dies ... and ... most of them are brought back to life but that's not the point- alot of MCU actors end their contracts with Infinity Wars, including but not limited to:

Captain America Iron Man Thor Loki Hawkeye

Now this doesn't mean that all of these guys are going to dissappear- Robert Downey Jr. has upped his contract TWICE already, for example, and it doesn't mean that the others are safe, Scarlett Johanson's contract is one of the loosest of all of them because she keeps "upping her contract" without letting it rest like the others do, apparently going more movie-by-movie than solid blocks at a time, for example, but this is still relevant to note; people like The Winter Soldier, The Hulk, and all of the Guardians from Guardians Of The Galaxy *are*, however, locked in for movies post Infinity Wars and are thus pretty much safe

Two things are possible with a potential Skrull agent hiding in plain sight:

1. The perfect fake-out death; one of our heros is killed by Thanos as we all suspect they will be, we're left to chew on that until Captain Marvel when it's revealed that they were actually a Skrull all along and the REAL hero has been in a Skrull prison all this time, this would be a "great" way to trick audiences with someone like Captain America who's contract DOES end with Infinity Wars Part 1 and is top of the list of suspected deaths, this could be Marvel playing on our suspicions and renewing Chris Evans' contract secretly until after Captain Marvel is released, whereby Captain America will be "renewed" and essentially confirms himself to come back in future films

2. The perfect way to release an actor without killing the charector; let's keep using Cap for our example because he's easiest to work with, if they reveal Captain America to have been a Skrull all this time (a now very dead Skrull) they leave the door open for one of two things: 1. A recasting, letting Chris Evans out of his contract wile not killing Steve Rogers and setting up something of a Captain America reboot with a new actor where the goal is for Cap's besties (Winter Soldier, Falcon, Black Widow, and possibly Iron Man because he's in everything) to search for the REAL Cap, or 2. A looser contract that still keeps Chris Evans as Captain America but allows him some time off to pursue the other projects he wants to do, having the "Where is the real Cap?" mystery for the majority of Phase 4 would allow Chris to take a break and do some other projects without actually releasing him from the sheild and finding the real Captain America could be a subplot during Phase 4, leading to the last film in the set (some cheesy named "Captain America: Rise Of The First Avenger" or whatever) to reintroduce Cap into the MCU after a roughly 2-3 year long abscence, this new Cap would KEEP Chris' contract loose because he would have the excuse of recovering from his Skrull-related experiences to not tag along in some of the Avengers related adventures during Phase 5 as well, by the time  Phase 5 is done it's highly possible that the majority of the Avengers will have to be recast due to age anyhow, or Chris will have settled down, slowed his roll a little, and decided to committ more strongly to Captain America as he'll be older and might not be looking to pursue as many new opportunities- or they might just sideline alot of the original Avengers and keep ALL of their contracts to something like one movie every two years or some such because of all the new blood we're getting right now with folks like Doctor Strange and Antman to concentrate on

Here's the thing, the Skrull could be ANYONE- and I do mean anyone, it could be Ironman, it could be Captain Marvel, Nick Fury, even lil' Spiderman, that's just what Skrulls *do*, the ONLY ones who I think are more or less off the board for possible Skrullness are Thor and Loki, Loki is already a shapeshifting trickster who's faked his death twice (and surely will a third time in Thor: Ragnarok because it's almost a tradition by now) and to make him a Skrull would be the absolute ultimate in cheap, lazy, and stupid, because there's absolutely no benefit to it, why make that a thing when Loki is just a better, prettier, more powerfull and fun-time version of a Skrull anyway in terms of powers? And he's a villain, wich would make the reveal not only useless but... well... double useless, the idea is shock and emotion, revealing a villain to be.... another villain is just senseless, Thor *could* be in the same sense that the neighbor's dog *could* be, it'd certainly be a surprise but it wouldn't make much sense because, again, of Loki, it would just feel cheap to make one half of a trickster duo another trickster, it wouldn't make much sense for Ragnarok (why would a Skrull continue to impersonate Thor on a war planet instead of, you know, escaping?) and it would just be ... odd, Thor fell ass backwards into the Avengers in the first place, there'd be virtually no advantage to impersonating him and given that he was sent to Earth as punishment from Odin to begin with the only way for it to even KIND OF make sense is if the Skrull started impersonating him during The Dark World wich, again, due to Loki, would feel incredibly cheap and useless- as an aside, I feel kind of certain that Tom Hiddleston and Chris Hemsworth will renew their contracts, they don't have to fill as many commitments as, say, Ironman and Captain America, and they both seem to love their roles dearly, I'm not too worried about them

Our most likely Skrull agents in my opinion are people intimately involved with the S.H.E.I.L.D. organization such as Ironman, Nick Fury, Captain America, Agent Carter (Peggy's granddaughter, Emily Vancamp's charector), Captain America, Hawkeye, maaaaaybe Black Widow although I still feel that one is unlikely, etc etc, because a Skrull would have the most to gain from impersonating these people and infiltrating a massive government organization that often has international ties, I actually would kind of like if it was Peggy's granddaughter, that would be really out of the blue and shocking, not very heart-wrenching, but shocking all the same, and it'd make considerable sense, we don't know much about her but because she's Peggy's granddaughter we (and Cap) instantly trust her, she works inside S.H.E.I.L.D and gets along with the Avengers, especially Cap himself.... it's a nice, clean, fit but I think they might be shooting for someone higher on the food chain, I don't have a solid guess in all honesty because I can find a bunch of reasons for and against pretty much everyone in The Avengers besides Thor and Loki, but it's something to keep an eye out for

When Infinity Wars begins, don't just fear for the LIVES of your favorite heros, fear for their IDENTITIES as well....

[hauntedfalcon]

Haha wow, a pretend Black Widow and Hawkeye gifset using footage from Lucy and somefuckingthing Jeremy Renner was in, with action clips made up entirely of them beating up people of color. 

:|

[hauntedfalcon]

Martin Freeman as Black Widow

This is absolutely the worst anon message I’ve ever received, including the one where someone hoped frogs would kill me. 

[hauntedfalcon]

I am salty about a lot of things in the new Ultron trailer

but Natasha

scooping Steve's shield off the ground while on her bike

is not one of them. 

[hauntedfalcon]

Why do you want black widow to be recast?

ScarJo is a pretty terrible person (Google her name and SodaStream, or her name and Woody Allen, or just “Scarlett Johannson problematic” for all kinds of results). And I realize ousting every terrible human from the MCU would mean recasting just about every role except Captain America probably, but I figure you gotta start somewhere. 

Also, she just got cast in Ghost in the Shell, so it seems only fair to give her role to Rinko Kikuchi. :DDDDDD

[hauntedfalcon]

Man, Marvel really takes the whole "lady-veins must remain clean" thing so far that they even dropped that really confusing hint that the ONE ACTUAL LADY SUPER-SOLDIER is just a regular normal type thirty-year-old woman. 

ಠ_ಠ

[hauntedfalcon]

OH GOD OH GOD WHAT IF 

WHAT IF THAT TRIP TO RUSSIA IN EPISODE FIVE TIES IN NOT ONLY WITH LEVIATHAN AND WITH DOTTIE 

BUT WHAT IF 

WHAT

IF

MARVEL FINALLY DECIDES NATASHA IS COMICS-CANON AGE

[hauntedfalcon]

I saw the X-Men: Apocalypse casting news a few days ago, but it only just caught up with me that this means Sophie Turner will never play Black Widow. I'll just be over here sobbing.

[hauntedfalcon]

Watching Avengers with confabulatrix, more like "Let's note all the times Whedon went out of his way to put Natasha in a position of extreme (genuine or feigned) vulnerability, and compare to how, in The Winter Soldier, she never had to pretend to be anything other than entirely competent." 

[hauntedfalcon]

Who's your ideal Black Widow recast? and/bonus what kind of Black Widow movie do you want to see?

I thought the fan-made BW trailer with Sophie Turner was brilliant. I'd love to see her in that role. 

I want the full origin story. I want Black Widow to be explored as thoroughly as every other Avenger. I want it to be dark and terrible and unflinching. I want it to take us all the way up to the point she joins S.H.I.E.L.D., and I want it to show us the beginning of what she and Nick Fury mean to each other. 

THEN I WANT THE SEQUEL

[hauntedfalcon]

Man, the "Bye-bye bikinis" line was really bothering me in the midst of such a serious scene, but then I got to thinking about how that's almost certainly not the only scar on Natasha's torso, and how she keeps them concealed, literally and figuratively, until baring them becomes useful.