Fans can now watch an alternate version of Natasha Romanoff, aka Black Widow’s, death scene from Avengers: Endgame.
Natasha’s death scene in Endgame was controversial amongst fans believing that because of the death taking place in Act 2 there isn’t enough time for the other Avengers to mourn her loss. Even the writers admit that there wasn’t enough time to focus on the grief over her sacrifice because there is another hour left in the movie and the heroes need to focus on defeating Thanos.
Black Widow’s alternate death scene, which you can watch below, was an earlier idea that got changed to what we saw in theaters.
Black Widow Bites The Dust (Again)
The scene above is more of a battle sequence without the emotional weight of Natasha’s death being about a sacrifice to save her closest friends. This alternate version takes away some of the agency of the choice making it about simply defeating Thanos not only as a whole, but in the moment as well. It also takes away some of the tension and mystery of who will die Clint or Natasha.
Natasha’s death in this alternate version shifts the focus away from her heroic sacrifice and instead makes it an inevitable necessity. The emotion and tension is no longer related to Clint and Natasha’s friendship. The tension becomes will they be able to get to the soul stone before Thanos and his minions can stop them?
The scene focuses solely on the music for the emotional gut punch with no dialogue. Natasha is no longer choosing to save her friend so he can have a chance at getting his family back and redeeming his actions since the snap. Instead Natasha’s death feels inevitable because she has been shot multiple times and they are pinned down with Thanos coming up behind Clint.
Natasha’s death in Endgame is an emotional gut punch that wraps up her arc of brutal assassin trying to find redemption for her past deeds. She manages to not only save her closest friends, Clint and the other Avengers, but the billions that Thanos killed as well. It is more clearly a heroic sacrifice.
Natasha recognizes that one of them won’t be making it out of this and her mission since Infinity War has been to keep those left alive safe, find Clint, and try to save all the people lost. She manages to do all of those things in this one act.
Some of the controversy surrounding Natasha’s death is whether or not it was a fair ending for the character. Some fans argue that it should have been Clint Barton who died instead. However, Endgame writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely felt that Natasha’s heroic sacrifice for her found family and the fate of the universe was a fitting end to her character’s journey.
Natasha wasn’t the only character whose story came to a close in Endgame. Tony Stark followed in Natasha’s footsteps sacrificing himself to save the universe and reverse Thanos’ snap while also being sure to save Pepper and their daughter. Steve Roger’s time as Captain America also came to an end when he found a way back to his lost love Peggy Carter by finding a loophole when he traveled back in time to return the infinity stones to their places in history.
Thankfully, this is not the last we will see of Natasha Romanoff. She will be starring in her upcoming solo film, a prequel for obvious reasons, where we will finally learn the mysteries of Natasha’s back story and what she has been up to between appearances in MCU films. Black Widow is set to hit theaters November 6, 2020, having been delayed along with the rest of Marvel’s Phase 4 films because of the COVID-19 global pandemic.
