When Does Black Widow Take Place In the Marvel Timeline?
Black Widow is finally out in the world, kicking ass in theaters and in your living room thanks to Disney+ (with Premier Access). In addition to all the COVID-related delays that kept the film from dropping in 2020, fans have spent over a decade waiting for Scarlett Johanssons Avenger to get her own movie. Now its here, and it can finally take its place in the increasingly complex Marvel Cinematic Universe timeline. Well, the last time we saw Black Widow was in Avengers: Endgameand she died. Since Black Widow only drops subtle clues as to where it falls in the overall Marvel narrative, heres everything you need to know about where Black Widow takes place in the MCU timeline. Black Widow takes place immediately after 2016s Captain America: Civil War. So as far as Black Widow is concerned, her solo film takes place between Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War. Thats really all you need to know to understand where shes at at this point in her story, emotionally. She just saw her found familyone that she fought to keep togethertorn apart! So the revised viewing order for this chunk of the MCU timeline is now:  Captain America: Civil War  Black Widow  Black Panther  Spider-Man: Homecoming  To get more SPOILER-y and even more confusingly precise: all of Black Widow takes place around the 2:15:15 mark of Captain America: Civil War. We know that because the film ends withagain, SPOILERSa newly blonde Natasha hopping in her newly-acquired (re: stolen) Quinjet and taking off to go bust some friends out of jail. So if youre watching things in chronological order, youd stop Civil War at 2:15:15, watch all of Black Widow, and then resume Civil War to see Captain America spring his buds out of jail. Now we know that Black Widow was there with Cap, keeping the car running offscreenand we now know that Falcon, Wanda, Ant-Man, and Hawkeye were chilling in the Raft for a little bit of time before their rescue. Black Widows ending also sets up Avengers: Infinity War, adding a lot more emotional heft to Natashas minor role in the film. We now know that Black Widows dramatically different look in that film is a nod to her sister, Yelena. Shes wearing Yelenas vest (with so many pockets) and has blonde hair like her sister. And if Yelena was blipped out of existence for five years, this would also explain why Natasha didnt cut all the blonde off during that time, as seen in Avengers: Endgame. She was holding on to memories of her sister. And/or, yknow, she was really depressed and the last year has, uh, really taught all of us about haircare and depression. So to sum it all up: Black Widow takes place between her appearances in Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War. Stream Black Widow on Disney+ with Premier Access