Writer Eric Pearson has worked on Marvel projects in the past (Thor: Ragnarok, Agent Carter), but he still wasn't made aware of the studio's post Black Widow plans - despite penning the movie's script!
If you haven't seen Black Widow yet, here's your major spoilers warning.
The film ends with Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson) setting off to break the rest of the "Secret Avengers" out of prison, but the post-credits scene jumps forward to after the events of Avengers: Endgame, as Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh) pays a tearful visit to her sister's grave. There, Julia Louis-Dreyfus' Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine gives the new Black Widow(?) her latest assignment: Track down and kill the man responsible for Nat's death, Clint Barton.
This was clearly supposed to set up Yelena's return in the upcoming Disney+ Hawkeye series, but the powers that be didn't feel the need to impart that information to Pearson when he was writing the sequence.
"I was like, 'What does that mean?' They were like, 'Don't worry about it. You don't have to know that,'" Pearson told EW. "I was like, 'Who am I screwing over? Something is going on! I don't have an answer for this.' They were like, 'You don't need to. We are going to figure that out.' I remember writing it and feeling super guilty. I hope whatever writer is working on this next chapter is going to be okay with what I've done to them."
The fact that Pugh will reprise the role of Yelena Belova for Hawkeye has been common knowledge for a while, but this just goes to show that Marvel Studios' notorious secrecy also applies to the very people that are shaping the MCU's future.
Black Widow is now in theaters and on Disney+ Premiere Access.