'Black Widow' Trailer: Scarlett Johansson's Assassin-Turned-Avenger Confronts Her Past

Fans have spent years waiting for a solo Black Widow movie – and now it's here. But is it too late? Maybe not. Scarlett Johansson is back as Natasha Romanoff, the KGB assassin turned Avenger. In this film set shortly after the events of Captain America: Civil War, Natasha has to confront her past. David Harbour, Florence Pugh, and Rachel Weisz also star, and that is one impressive cast. Watch the Black Widow trailer below.

Is it too late for a solo Black Widow movie? I'm not sure. Marvel has been teasing a standalone film almost since the Infinity Saga began, and there was a time when a spy movie with Natasha Romanoff seemed like an exciting idea. But so much has happened in the MCU, and Natasha has gone through such a big arc already (she literally died to help save the world), that you can't help feeling like Black Widow should've arrived in theaters years ago.

That doesn't mean this Black Widow movie can't surprise us and turn out to be an exciting film. Adding heavy-hitters like Florence Pugh and Rachel Weisz to the cast certainly doesn't hurt. And perhaps all the build-up was worth it. "I don't think I could have played this iteration of Natasha 10 years ago," Johansson said during Comic-Con. "It would've been a very different film. I get to play Natasha as a fully realized woman and in all of her many facets. I'm excited for fans to see the flawed side of her, what she perceives to be the flawed side of her. And I'm looking to wipe out some of that red in my ledger, so you guys will be seeing a lot of that."

Black Widow is technically a prequel, which might seem like a step-back for the MCU. But Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige says that "there are ways to do prequels that are less informative or answer questions you didn't necessarily have, and then there are ways to do prequels where you learn all sorts of things you never knew before." Feige likens the project to the Breaking Bad prequel series Better Call Saul, saying: "I look at Better Call Saul as a wonderful example of a prequel that almost completely stands on its own apart from Breaking Bad because it informs you about so many things you didn't know about before."Cate Shortland directs, with a script from Jac Schaeffer and Ned Benson. Black Widow opens May 1, 2020.