While today's
set pictures from the untitled
Avengers sequel revealed a fresh look for Chris Evan's Captain America, Paul Rudd's Ant-Man and Scarlett Johansson's Black Widow, on second glance they also feature a costume detail on Black Widow that may have a bigger significance.
Reshoots for
Avengers 4 are underway - Jeremy Renner (Hawkeye) is also onset as confirmed on his
Instagram account - and while we don't get to see Black Widow in full costume on the featured set pictures, there's a clear shot of a necklace around her neck, one that was last seen in
Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014). The arrow shaped necklace had fans back then speculate about a romance between Hawkeye and Widow.
Of course that was before Joss Whedon shoehoerned a romance between Bruce Banner and Widow into 2015's
Avengers: Age of Ultron, a storyline with no roots whatsoever in the Marvel source material. The director additionally wrote Clint Barton's character as having a family, similar to the outdated and not very well received Ultimate comic verse. It has since been confirmed that even the Russo brothers were unaware of these plans, as well as the actors, and Whedon himself stated that he went for the Banner/Romanoff romance only to fulfill the old "Beauty and the Beast" trope as well as to mess with those fans who had been rooting for a Hawkeye/Widow pairing. It's easy to speculate the Russo were hinting at a romance between Black Widow and Hawkeye in
Winter Soldier, a storyline that has been happening in Marvel comics and cartoons in several universes - even as recently as in the Old Man Hawkeye comic.
If and how those old speculated plans and Whedon's version of romance will come back into play in
Avengers 4, remains to be seen, but with speculation still high that Hawkeye's family was killed off with the snap, there's always a chance, the Russo brothers come back to a storyline here that many fans would favor over the hotly debated Widow/Hulk-romance.