O-T Fagbenle's Black Widow Character Might Return In Future Projects [Exclusive]

In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, "people who don't have friends" call Rick Mason, the character played by O-T Fagbenle in "Black Widow." As a former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent turned free agent and weapons supplier, Mason was there for Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson) when she was on the run from the U.S. government after the events of "Captain America: Civil War." In the future, it's quite possible he will be there for other Marvel superheroes, as well.

Fagbenle received an Emmy nomination last year for his supporting turn as Luke in "The Handmaid's Tale," and given that "Black Widow" was a prequel centered on a hero who is now canonically dead, his character could have easily been a one-and-done. Yet we have already seen a couple of other characters who were featured in "Black Widow" pop up elsewhere in the MCU. Julia Louis-Dreyfus made her debut as Valentina Allegra de Fontaine in "The Falcon and the Winter," and she showed up again in the post-credits scene, while Florence Pugh's character, Yelena Belova, became a player in "Hawkeye."

In an interview with /Film's Ryan Scott, which will be published soon, Fagbenle responded to the question of whether we could expect to see Mason again in the MCU, saying, "I mean, you know what, with Marvel, I'm never sure how much they can say about stuff, but I'll just say that it wasn't a one-and-done conversation."

In Marvel Comics, Rick Mason goes by the moniker of "The Agent." He was created by James Hudnall and John Ridgway and first appeared in "Marvel Graphic Novel: Rick Mason, The Agent" in 1989. When asked if he researched any of this source material or just felt the need to be loyal to the "Black Widow" script, Fagbenle said:

"I mean, to be honest, I did start to do all of that. I had conversations with Eric [Pearson], who wrote 'Black Widow,' who's become a friend of mine, he's a genius and a beautiful person. In our conversations, in some ways I feel like this incarnation of Mason is an Eric creation ... So although I did have a little peek at the original, I very soon just became focused on what Eric created for 'Black Widow.'"

In "Black Widow," Natasha came back to her safe house to find Mason snoozing in her bed, and the characters shared easy chemistry, which they never acted on. Mason's status as a plainclothes arms dealer might make him a better fit for the tech-enhanced human side of the MCU. Knowing how much Marvel Studios thrives on interconnectedness, it wouldn't be surprising to see him show up at some point in the near future in a series like "Armor Wars," which sees James Rhodes (Don Cheadle) dealing with "what happens when Tony Stark's tech falls into the wrong hands." Maybe Mason's hands are included among the wrong hands, or maybe he could use his black market contacts to help Rhodey track down some of Tony's missing hardware? Another possibility is that Mason could rear his head in a movie like "Captain America 4." 

Either way, Fagbenle's comments leave open the possibility that we haven't seen the last of him in the MCU, so keep your eyes peeled. You never know when you might see Rick Mason again.