What We Know So Far About Black Widow's Role In Avengers: Endgame

Hawkeye and Black Widow's relationship will receive a lot of attention in Avengers: Endgame. Natasha follows her old friend to Tokyo as seen in the trailers, where she finds that the Decimation has drastically altered him. It is generally accepted that, in the MCU, Hawkeye's new identity as Ronin, which he assumed in the comics when he was experiencing some of the darkest times of his life, means that he lost his wife and children in the Decimation. That will undoubtedly hurt Natasha because she is close with Clint Barton and his family—so much so that Nathaniel, his son, is named in her honor.

There has been a lot of speculation about how the meeting between Clint Barton and Black Widow will go. Some fans anticipated Clint would pin the blame on the Avengers, but the trailers make no mention of that. Instead, it appears as though Clint and Natasha find solace in each other's sorrow, and Black Widow quickly persuades Hawkeye to join the Avengers Compound and fight against Thanos with her.

The Avengers have been profoundly affected by Avengers: Infinity War's aftermath. The MCU refers to this event as the Decimation. They failed to stop Thanos, and the Mad Titan achieved his insane goal of wiping out half of all life in the universe with the snap of his fingers. The original Avengers could do nothing but watch in horror as some of their closest friends vanished into thin air.

The Avengers appear to be prepared to approach this apocalypse in various ways; Black Widow appears to be more motivated than ever. She can be seen in one tense trailer shot going through a training montage to prepare for the task at hand. "When we find her, she’s f****** pissed off," Johansson said to Empire. "The one thing we know about Natasha is that she’s going to hunker down and she’s going to get those motherf******. That’s her MO."

Black Widow had dyed her hair white because she was one of Steve Rogers' Secret Avengers and was on the run during Avengers: Infinity War. The Avengers: Endgame trailer features several scenes of Natasha leading a briefing while sporting the same color, and short hair which suggests the movie starts right after Thanos' victory. The same can be said for scenes involving Captain Marvel, indicating that Earth is visited by Carol Danvers not too long after the snap.

However, in other scenes, Natasha's hair is longer and back to its usual red color, indicating a clear time jump in Avengers: Endgame. When Nat meets Clint Barton in Japan and when she and the Avengers leave in their new Quantum Realm outfits, the second trailer showed that she is once again a redhead. All of this suggests that Avengers: Endgame's opening scene alternates between two time periods to give the team time to prepare for their mission, which will change time in a different way.

Strong evidence suggests that time travel is involved in Avengers: Endgame, including set photos that show characters revisiting the Battle of New York and them donning "Advanced Tech" suits that are strikingly similar to Hank Pym's Quantum Realm survival gear. With the post-credits scene of Ant-Man & the Wasp even revealing that there are mysterious "time vortexes" in it, the Quantum Realm is a plane of reality that is outside the normal laws of time and space. Marvel has openly acknowledged that it could unlock the potential for time travel.

If this speculation is true, Black Widow and the Avengers will enter the Quantum Realm and go back in time. Marvel is doing their best to ensure that no information about its exact mission leaks through the trailers and TV ads at this time; however, it is still unclear. But it makes sense to assume that the Avengers are making some sort of effort to change the course of events so that Thanos' snap never occurs. That would undoubtedly account for why, in the Avengers: Endgame trailers, even Black Widow appears to think this plan is somewhat improbable.